Dreadful, just dreadful

I think we can safely say the end of the line has now been reached by the Harriers in securing their Conference Premier status after this dreadful home defeat to a very ordinary looking Bromley side.  It wasn't just the result that was dreadful it was everything from the style of play, the choice of starting line-up, the poor substitutions in the second half and the poor refereeing.  Above all it was the sadness of the Harriers fans that trooped out at the end thoroughly dejected and speechless at what they had just witnessed.

I wrote in my match preview that the euphoria of our three consecutive wins and mini climb up the table was evaporating and I was criticised by some that we still had a chance of survival.  Not on this performance we haven't.

Colin Gordon, the out of his depth caretaker manager, said we looked tired against Wrexham and changes would be made.  Ben Whitfield and Luke Maxwell were relegated to the bench even though we need our better players at times like this and in place of them came Omari Patrick and James McQuilkin.  Upfront, once again, was Harry White all on his owny own and we're supposed to be at home fighting relegation.

In recent weeks we have seen a pleasant passing game from our struggling team and that is what gave us hope that we could carry out the great escape but today that was missing and we had reverted back to the launch it football that we witnessed under Gary Whild.  That meant that against a massed defence like Bromley the ball would keep coming back at us and it was back to square one.  When we did keep the ball on the ground we had no pace to penetrate the defence because Arthur Gnahoua didn't seem to be interested in taking defenders on and Patrick was getting no where against their tall defenders.  Only Harry White was getting any change from them and he was lacking any decent service.

Our first real showing of the game came twenty minutes in with a series of corners.  The first two were fruitless and the third resulted in a smart header from Kelvin Langmead that Alan Julian in the Londoners goal coped with easily.  The fourth corner ended with a pointless push by Langmead to award the visitors a free kick.

The Harriers own keeper, Dean Snedker, did well keeping a header from Moses Emmanuel from entering the goal.  They had only come for the point so a goal would have been a bonus anyway.

We had a chance through Langmead again towards the end of the half but Julian again saved it easily.

It was obvious that a change would come when Ben Whitfield was recalled to the dressing room only seconds of coming out for the subs kick about.  He replaced Omari Patrick and straight away we looked better with Ben looking for the ball and being able to do something with it.  But that was only a fleeting improvement as the rest of the team opted to more or less ignore him for the remaining thirty five minutes of the game.

Our first real chance of the new half, and the game, came in that period when James McQuilkin fired over the bar following Gnahoua's pass.  The best followed soon after when Whitfield worked hard to get into a position to cross the ball into the box for Keith Lowe to meet the ball and head it goalwards only for Julian to stop the ball superbly on the line.

We then made the curious substitution as on came Luke Maxwell for McQuilkin in a move designed to give a little more strength in midfield without hopefully sacrificing creativity but the other change was bizarre to say the least.  Off went the 'trying hard with no service' Harry White and on came the 'trying hard but no strength' Evan Garnett.  Up against Bromleys big guys he wasn't going to see much of the aeriel ball but he might see it if it was played along the ground.  For the remainder of the game we looked clueless for some strange reason and that could be down to the tendency to hoof it down the left side of the pitch rather than use Whitfield.  At one stage Ben went over to that side looking for the ball.

Garnetts golden chance came and went in the eightieth minute when he, at last, was given the ball to his feet and broke free of his lumbering marker only to be bought down from behind when he was in the area and clear on goal.  If he had managed to go on and put the ball home would be another question but he had done well so far only to see the referee turn down the penalty appeal.  If a tackle from behind on a player free on goal isn't a penalty then what is?  No wonder Colin Gordon was supposedly incensed with the official at the end of the game.

Of course as is the way with life when you're crawling around at the bottom life comes along and kicks you a bit more.  Four minutes from the end of normal time and we gave away a stupid free kick for which Ousmane Fané was shown a yellow card.  The kick was taken by Joe Anderson and looked to be going the wrong side of the post, and evading any Bromley head, foot or other body part, but then took a devilish dip and went into the net with Snedker looking aghast as it crept in between him and the post.  Half the fans walked out.

We offered nothing in return apart from Langmead being sent to do the Harry White rolé when it would have been better to let Harry White do it himself.  With Boreham Wood winning 3-0 at Southport and games in hand for Torquay (4), Welling (1), Halifax (2), Altrincham (2) and when we can't even win our home games then we look to finally be un-saveable and relegated.

 Goal for Bromley: Anderson 86

REFEREE:

Mr A Young Cambridgeshire