The Harriers great away form continues

A much changed Harriers side returned from Aldershot tonight with their first ever win over the struggling Hampshire side thanks to a late Jack Byrne goal.  We had three big changes to the side that collapsed alarmingly to Macclesfield on Saturday with the main surprise being Jas Singh in for Danny Lewis.  It was Lewis's poor kicking on Saturday that lead to Maccs second goal but his kicking was erratic all through the game.

In midfield Kyle Storer was replaced by new loan signing Aaron Wildig from Shrewsbury while Danny Wright signed earlier today from Gateshead and went straight into the starting eleven.  On the bench were neither Storer or Craig Reid but Lewis was there.

With Aldershot having a similar home record as ourselves, four home defeats on the trot, it was always going to be a cagey start for both sides.  The home side pressed in the opening minutes with Danny East testing Singh and then defender Joe Oastler crashing a shot against the underside of the bar a minutes later.  It took the Harriers just past the fifteen minute mark for our first shot to be registered with Danny Wright collecting a pass from Marvin Johnson and then trying to fire past the keeper but the new boys shot went just wide with claims of a deflection off a Shots defender getting ignored by the referee.

Aman Verma, playing in a deeper midfield rôle, sent a header wide a minute later but there was very little action after that with just a few attempts from the home side that didn't quite come off.

From the re-start the Harriers almost went a goal behind after Singh was caught out of position by a quick break forward by Aldershot.  Ryan Jarvis had swooped onto a long ball from the back and, seeing Singh up by the halfway line, darted in on goal only to feel the force of Jamie Grimes coming in to rob him of the ball and save Singhs skin.

After that near miss we buckled down and took control of the game.  Jordan Tunnicliffe saw a header go wide from a corner while the other new boy, Aaron Wildig, tried his luck with a shot that curled wide of the upright.

As the sixty minute mark approached more chances fell our way as a Kevin Nicholson free kick went out for a corner.  It was taken by Keyon Reffell who placed it on the head of Verma but his header went just the wrong side of the post.  The best was to come on that sixty minutes when Wright sent in a rasping shot that the Shots keeper, Phil Smith, managed to push away only for Reffell to pounce on the ball and send it just the wrong side of the post yet again.  It wasn't going to be our night.

Chances were coming thick and fast for the visitors now.  Verma tested Smith once more while Marvin Johnson had a couple of attempts at putting the ball away but as before they weren't quite on target.

Aldershot had been quiet for most of the half so far but suddenly came to life with a chance falling for East that he put wide and then Singh pulled off a great save to keep the Harriers in the game when he saved Jordan Roberts fierce strike superbly.

Minutes later and it was almost game over when substitute Akwasi Asante, on for Reffell, ran onto a pass from Johnson to meet the ball at the far post but somehow he stumbled and stepped on the ball instead and his chance of a first goal for the Harriers was gone.  Not to worry though because less than a minute later we had taken the lead.

Verma swept the ball to the edge of the area for the waiting Jack Byrne to hit an un-stoppable strike into the roof of the net and so give the Harriers their fourth away win in a row.  Those three well deserved points have now propelled us back into the play off places and with another away game at Chester on Saturday could we be looking at five wins in a row away from home?

 Goal for Harriers: Byrne 74

REFEREE:

Mr J Amey Dorset