Harriers battle well at Bromley but in vain

Even though the Harriers lost this game at Bromley tonight there were still a couple of positives to take from it after yet another chaotic week at Aggborough.  The first positive was the tempo at which we played at during the first half with the team eagerly looking to get a long overdue win.  The second was the emergence of Jordan Jones as a scoring machine with two goals on his full debut after coming on as a late sub at Halifax and at home to Lincoln last Saturday.

With caretaker manager Colin Gordon in charge for the first time since the dismissal of Gary Whild yesterday it was to be hoped that the new broom would spur the team on to their first win of the season.  He made a few changes to the side that lost at home to Lincoln with Luke Maxwell returning to the side following suspension at the the expense of Calvin Dinsley who dropped to the bench while Tahvon Campbell returned in place of Andre Wright.  The biggest change, and surprise, was Aman Verma being dropped to the bench in favour of the comparatively unknown Jordan Jones.

Many fans questioned this move at the start of the game but any fears were allayed twenty minutes into the game when Jones scored the first of his brace.  We had already come close with Campbell ripping the Bromley defence to shreds and Maxwell sending a chance over the bar but then Kevin Toner played in Gurjit Singh who then sent a low cross into the area.  All it needed was the well placed Jones to place the ball home for his first goal for the Harriers.

Bromley could have easily pulled a goal back straight after when the Harriers defence fell asleep at a free kick but thankfully Alex Palmer made a great one handed stop from Moses Emmanuels drive.  They continued to try and pull the goal back with some excellent football and now the Harriers began to struggle to cope.

When Jared Hodgkiss gave away a free kick on the edge of the area you could sense that the pressure had told.  Louis Dennis took the free kick and bent the ball around the Harriers defenders and Palmer for the equalising goal.

They didn't stop there and had chances to take the lead through the ex Rushden striker Max Porter and Jack Holland while on the stroke of halftime Dennis could have doubled his tally when his angled shot was just short of the goal.

The Harriers went into the break looking much improved on recent displays and we could only hope for more of the same in fifteen minutes time.

We were forced into a change at the break with Andre Wright having to come on for the injured Singh but sadly the half was only three minutes old when the home side took the lead.  Jordan Tunnicliffe went up to clear a cross but mis-directed it into the path of Emmanuel for the leagues leading scorer to slam the loose ball beyond the reach of Alex Palmer.

Our day was to get worse when Bromley were awarded a penalty after Anthony Cook was bought down in the area by Kelvin Langmead.  Cook was going away from the defender but Langmead made a slight contact with him and he fell over.  Cook himself took the spot kick and hammered it home sending Palmer the wrong way in the process.

The game looked to be all but over now and seemed cruel on the Harriers hard work.  It was looking likely that Bromley would do to us what they did to Torquay at the weekend.  Run riot on a goal spree.

Somehow it never happened and instead the Harriers upped the tempo to take the game to Bromley and go in search of a comeback goal.  Just after the hour mark Jordan Jones did just that with a fine strike from all of twenty five yards out from goal.  On the way in it took a slight deflection to deceive Chris Kettings in the Bromley goal.

The Harriers mounted further pressure to get that third goal that would cap a fine comeback but, with six minutes time added on, the only clear chance we got to score came from Wright when he got on the end of a cross but could only send his header over the bar.

We now have another tough away game on Saturday with the long trip to Barrow.  Their home form is pretty good with four wins and one draw so we need to make a massive effort if we aim to get a win at the thirteenth attempt.

 Goals for Bromley: Dennis 37, Emmanuel 48, Cook 59 (pen)
 Goals for Harriers: Jones 20, 65

REFEREE:

Mr J Busby Oxfordshire