Harriers get no change from Halifax

Four changes to the Harriers side at Halifax today failed to reap any benefit result wise as we fell to a 2-0 defeat with the Halifax goals coming from Louis Maynard and the former Harriers loanee Richard Peniket.  Two of the changes were enforced with Josh Gowling missing out through injury and Kyle Storer missing out through suspension.  Jamie Grimes and Aman Verma stepped in for those two while Ahmed Obeng came into the side at the expense of Marvin Johnson following his good showing at Barnet last Saturday while Michael Gash started in place of Craig Reid.  Both Johnson and Reid went to the bench.

For Halifax they came into the game on the back of four games without a win and a 4-1 defeat away at Eastleigh last weekend.  They intended to start todays game with Danny Hattersley, returning from injury, but he got taken ill during the pre-game warm up and was replaced at the last minute by Peniket.

The first half was another poor one for the Reds with hardly any threat at all to the Shaymens goal with the veteran Matty Glennon between the sticks.  A flurry of corners for both sides was the main feature of the first fifteen minutes of the game but without any real threat of a goal for either side with Callum Gittings coming the closest with a header that Glennon tipped over the bar.

Halifax' first attempt on goal came from defender Steve Williams but his header, collected by Danny Lewis, would have been offside if it had gone in anyway.  Williams had a shot go wide a few minutes later and then they scored.

The goal seemed to come from nowhere.  Maynard suddenly snapped a shot towards goal but Lewis was slightly too late in seeing it as it flashed between our keeper and his post.  A few minutes later and the hosts had gone 2-0 up but not before we went close to equalising when Jared Hodgkiss sent a tempting ball across the face of the goal but with no one available, or able, to put a foot out and divert it in.

The killer goal came from a mistake by defender Chey Dunkley when he lazily headed an innocuous ball back towards Lewis without getting any kind of power on it.  Peniket spotted his chance and rounded Lewis to send the ball goalwards.  Jamie Grimes managed to get back in an attempt to block it but couldn't quite make it.  2-0.

Following that goal there was very little of note from either side and the teams went in for the break with the Harriers fans hoping that there might be a re-run of last Saturdays half time recovery at Barnet when we went into the break 3-0 down to force a 3-3 draw by the end of the game.

Halifax commenced the second period with a change to their ranks.  Adam Smith came on in place of Paul Marshall and just seconds after the re-start Peniket was looking for his second goal of the afternoon when he tested out Lewis with a shot from the edge of the area.

We looked to be more up for it in this half but for all our possession we still failed to really test the keeper at all.  Kevin Nicholson sent a fine free kick goalwards but it was headed away by a defender and a few minutes later the same player took a well aimed corner that Nathan Blissett connected with but that too was cleared away to safety.  Gary Whild rang the changes and replaced Gittings with Marvin Johnson in an effort to supply more ammunition from out wide.

That width materialised itself in a tricky run down the wing for the, up till then, anonymous Obeng that ended in a corner.  That corner was narrowly sent over the crossbar by Michael gash after he soared above everyone else.  A few more changes for both sides took place with the notable one being the return of Josh O'Keefe, for his first appearance of the season, in place of Aman Verma.

O'Keefe had a chance to redeem himself with the fans but his shot from Obengs nifty back heel sailed over the bar.  Soon after followed probably the only moment of excitement in the whole game for the ninety nine harriers fans present when a flurry of chances fell for various Harriers players.

Nathan Blissett won a corner that was taken and sent into the area but cleared away as far as Johnson.  He sent the ball back into the area onto Chey Dunkleys head but his header hit the post and came back out for Gash to get on the end of.  That shot was blocked and the excitement was over for another week.

 Goals for Halifax: Maynard 34, Peniket 39

REFEREE:

Mr M Coy Co Durham