The Harriers stumbled to their fourth home defeat in a row against Macclesfield on Saturday and ironically we'll be going to Aldershot tomorrow evening to face a Shots side that have also lost their last four home games. The game is primed to be a thriller then. At least our away form is better than our home and the Shots lost 3-0 at Lincoln on Saturday so that should make us favourites then.Against Macclesfield some shambolic management decisions condemned us to defeat even before the game had started with no recognised striker starting the game and three on the bench. By the time any substitutions were made we were two goals down and even then a rookie striker, with just two games from the bench, was thrown on and expected to get us back into the game with little or no support because our two remaining creative players had been taken off. It's no wonder that Gary Whild (right) has come into so much criticism from the fans and the press for that debacle.
Can he learn by his mistakes and put it right at the Rec?
At least we'll have the prospect of a decent pitch to look forward to and a team set up to play on it. Marvin Johnson should get a chance to beat his man tomorrow after Macclesfield never gave him a look in and Keyon Reffell also showed what he could be capable of even with a pitch that was not conducive to his style of play. All we need is an experienced striker up front.
To that end Whild has been in talks with Lee Hughes to return back to his spiritual home of Aggborough. He is set to be released by Forest Green and, along with his appearance at the game on Saturday, the omens seem to be there. It just needs the fans that can't forgive to accept him and the club to be able to pay his, undoubtedly high, wage demands.
With Hughes still in mind Whild also bought in a midfielder on loan from Shrewsbury today. Aaron Wildig has been out of favour since Mickey Mellon came in as manager and has yet to play this season so he could be a little ring rusty.
We have no injury problems apart from the long term Josh O'Keefe and Josh Gowling one but the captain should be back with us any day now and that can't come a day too soon with our defence leaking goals for fun.
Aldershot sit in eighteenth place following Saturdays games and that's down to a poor run of form since they beat us 2-0 back at the beginning of November. Since then they have only won three league games with the last one coming at Woking during the Christmas period.
Their under fire manager, Andy Scott, has tried shipping players out and bringing new ones in but, like us, the Shots are cash strapped and can only afford loan players looking to get match fit or from lower down the ladder. Today he bought in midfielder Jim Stevenson on a month long loan from Luton Town. Early last week defender Danny East (Portsmouth) and forward Ryan Jarvis (York City) came in and have been joined by midfielder Sam Saunders from Hemel Hempstead just last Friday.
Going out of the club are Dan Fitchett to Sutton, Tristan Plummer, Tom Derry and Naby Diallo have all left the club but signed for anyone yet while the loan spells of Dan Holman and Manny Oyeleke have ended, with the pair returning to their own clubs, Colchester and Brentford.
They also have a few injuries to key players. Damon Lathrope (groin), Josh Scott (metatarsal) and Mark Molesley (achilles) are all out with Scott being the one nearest to a return. With such a small squad left to choose from I expect the manager to bring in more new players before our game kicks off.
Hopefully we'll see a better performance than we do at home and with the freedom to 'express themselves' we might get to see a few goals from the Harriers too.
Photo © KHFC
Teams:
Harriers from:
Lewis, Mayebi, Singh, Whitcombe, Hodgkiss, Green, Storer, Tunnicliffe, Nicholson, Kelly, Grimes, Maxwell, Asante, Byrne, Wildig, Obeng, Digie, Johnson, Verma, Gittings, Reffell, Spencer, Reid.
Aldershot Town from:
Smith, Thomas, Oastler, Tonkin, Wilson, Barker, Hatton, B Williams, Scott, Gibbs, Roberts, East, Forbes, Stevenson, Jarvis, Welch, Saunders.
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