The Harriers came away from Bristol Rovers evening with a hard won draw following a lead given to us by Nathan Blissett mid way through the second half. Sadly for the shivering Harriers fans on a cold and misty day the Rovers substitute Matty Taylor scored a late equaliser to give Rovers a share of the spoils.
It was a decent result for two hard working sides that played hard but fairly. For the fans it was good to see two sides going out to win the game.
We started the game with two changes from the team that lost at home to Aldershot on Wednesday evening. One was enforced with Jamie Grimes replacing the suspended Jared Hodgkiss at right back while Aman Verma came in for Ahmed Obeng who dropped to the bench. On that bench was Tyrone Williams following his return from Romulus. Warming up before the game with Danny Lewis was the former Wrexham keeper Joslain Mayebi who has just signed with the club on non contract terms.
The game itself was a scrappy affair from our point of view for the first ten minutes with our midfield struggling to keep hold of the ball on a perfect pitch. As early as the third minute the home fans were calling for a penalty when the ball struck Josh Gowlings hand but the referee saw sense and turned down the fans appeals. It didn't stop them calling for blood every time a Rovers player went down though.
Rovers had a couple of chances in the first half but they were few and far between for both sides. Della-Verde came close for the home side with his shot that was tipped over the bar by Danny Lewis and then the Harriers keeper kept out an effort by Mark McChrystal at the far post.
Following that early possession by the hosts the game began to turn in Harriers favour as we began to take control of the midfield. It still took almost until the end of the first period for the Harriers to get a clear chance of a goal when Nathan Blissett forced the Gas keeper, Steve Mildenhall, into a good save. Bliss turned provider seconds before the half time whistle blew when he crossed the ball to the feet of Marvin Johnson who's shot beat the keeper but was headed off the line by Tom Lockyer.