Nuneaton Town 0 Harriers 0
Date: 21-02-15
Venue: James Parnell Stadium
att: 983
away fans: 262
|
0-0 and the entertainment value was a big fat zero
Report by Phil Lench
You had to feel sorry for the Harriers fans stuck in Nuneatons ground being subjected to this rubbish. At least the Reds contingent watching at home, or in the Arms, had the choice of switching off or going back to the bar for another pint. Us poor fools had to stick it out till the end.
It had started off quite promisingly with the same starting line-up that played against Woking last Saturday. The difference was the appearance of Callum Gittings on the bench in place of Jordan Tunnicliffe.
The game kicked off in a biting cold wind with the home side opting to play the first half into the wind. It took a while for anyone to get to grips with the conditions and that also included the poor bobbly pitch although we should be used to that by now.
Aman Verma made a right hash of a chance with the goal at his mercy. The ball fell kindly for him and, with just the keeper to beat and no defender within lunging distance, he opted to dribble the ball across the edge of the area and find someone else to take the shot. He passed it straight to a Nuneaton defender.
It took until the fifteenth minute for the first real attempt on goal with Lee Hughes, making amends for his weak shot a few minutes earlier, to send in a strong volley that the on loan Borough keeper Max Crocombe saved well.
The best chance for the host came three minutes later when Andy Brown fired well over the bar. You could see why Nuneaton are struggling near the bottom of the table and at the same time wonder why we aren't down there with them.
That was about it in terms of first half excitement and we could only hope for better in the second period having had the better of the chances so far.
How wrong could one be?
Within minutes of the re-start Gary Whild made a substitution that amazed, and stunned, the Harriers fans. For spurious reasons only known to himself he took our best and most creative player, Aaron Wildig, off the pitch in favour of Keyon Reffell. Nothing against Reffell but in his short time with us he hasn't actually set the place on fire yet while the on loan, and playing his last game for us, Wildig must be wondering if it's worth taking out an option of staying with us until the end of the season.
A few minutes later we had a second change to the side with another lightweight winger coming on for a striker/midfielder. This time Whild compounded his naivety by sending on Ahmed Obeng for Dominic Knowles. Knowles hadn't been having a brilliant game but he hadn't been too bad either. We now had two wingers on playing in midfield and no one out wide to send any crosses in to the front pairing of Wright and Hughes.
Fifteen minutes into the second half and the game had been reversed and squandered.
We had failed to get a single shot in on goal and now Nuneaton could sense that their time had come to rob us of the points. It was only thanks to last gasp defending, and Danny Lewis, that we kept the Nuneaton 'attack' at arms length. Adam Walker and George Maris had good chances to score but Danny denied them but like us they were goal shy too.
It wasn't until Callum Gittings came on for the below par Verma that we finally began to pull the midfield together and the wingers could get out to where they could do some damage. Reffell began to see more of the ball and get forward more but it was too late by then. Both our forwards began to show signs of fatigue and couldn't make anything of his crosses.
The game fizzled out. The Harriers fans walked out and back to their nice, warm cars.
The Harriers Online MotM is:
Danny Lewis
|
Vote for your Man of the Match
here
Latest table and stats here
|
|
Nuneaton Town |
goals |
subs |
cards |
|
Harriers |
goals |
subs |
cards |
Crocombe |
|
|
|
|
Lewis |
|
|
|
Wheeler |
|
|
|
|
Hodgkiss |
|
|
|
Franklin |
|
|
|
|
Nicholson |
|
|
|
Whitehouse |
|
|
|
|
Verma |
|
|
|
Dean |
|
|
|
|
Grimes |
|
|
|
Walker |
|
|
|
|
Gowling |
|
|
|
Armson |
|
|
|
|
Byrne |
|
|
|
Maris |
|
|
|
|
Knowles |
|
|
|
Mafuta |
|
|
|
|
Wright |
|
|
|
Brown |
|
|
|
|
Wildig |
|
|
|
Mafuta |
|
|
|
|
Hughes |
|
|
|
SUBS: |
|
|
|
|
SUBS: |
|
|
|
Wren |
|
|
|
|
Green |
|
|
|
Cowan |
|
|
|
|
Obeng |
|
- 65
|
|
Smith |
|
|
|
|
Gittings |
|
- 78
|
|
Nardiello |
|
- 70
|
|
|
Reffell |
|
- 55
|
|
Sodje |
|
- 88
|
|
|
Asante |
|
|
|
REFEREE:
|
Mr L Swabey
Plymouth
|