Harriers left fuming at the poor refereeing

Harriers hopes of building on last weeks first win of the season at home to Woking came crashing to ground at a windswept Chester this evening as they relinquished the lead given to them by Kelvin Langmead just before halftime.  With the referee ignoring the prone body of Kyle Howkins, lying on the floor with a head injury, Ross Hannah ran on and scored to draw his side level even though he was in an offside position.  At the start of the second half Chester scored from the whistle and later in the game Hannah made it 3-1 and no way back for the Harriers.

The game started with the Reds looking more balanced than in recent weeks with a proper midfield pairing of Ben Whitfield and Dino Fazlić to supply the front runners but sadly the wind wasn't helping matters and in the very first minute of the game a poorly placed pass from Whitfield almost allowed Hannah in to score and it was only down to Dean Snedker that the former Grimsby man was denied.  He was given a second chance ten minutes later and again Snedker was equal to Jonny Hunts strike from distance that was parried into the path of Hannah only for him to put it wide from a few yards out.

The closest we came to scoring early on was when Jordan Murphy hit the side netting and then again with a header from a corner that the Cestrian keeper, Glynn Worsnop, saved well.  It was soon after that we took the lead somewhat against the run of play.

With the Harriers now getting the measure of the conditions a neat bit of play between Whitfield and Matt Barnes-Homer ended with the former crossing to the far post and the latter playing it back into the area for langmead to fire home his first goal of the season for us.  His only previous goal for us just over eleven years ago when we beat Scunthorpe 3-2 at home.

Immediately from the restart came the moment of controversy when Ben Heneghan clashed with Kyle Howkins in the penalty area and the defender fell to the ground holding his head.  The referee, Mr Johnson from Liverpool, ignored the prone defender and allowed play to continue.  Within a few minutes Hannah surged forward past the still floored Howkins and slipped the ball into the net from an offside position.  With the Harriers players protesting he ignored their pleas and allowed the goal to stand.

Someone should really have booted the ball into the stand in the first place and then the goal would never have happened.

The whistle went for halftime as the Harriers left the field with their heads down.

The second half started disastrously for the Reds.  Right from the restart we fell asleep as Fazlić allowed himself to be robbed of the ball by Hannah who then played a simple ball forward for John Rooney to run onto and put past the exposed Dean Snedker in the Harriers goal.  Our heads dropped and we were never in the game again.

It was backs to the wall from then on as Chester took control of the game.  Dave Hockaday gave it ten minutes before he threw on Gurjit Singh at the expense of the under performing Jordan Murphy but it could have been any one of nine others not producing on the night.

Later on he sent on a returning James McQuilkin for his first game for us since he left us originally in February 2012 but it was all too late as Chester increased their lead further.  They had already gone close when Jordan Chappell fired over the bar but there was no stopping Hannah as he added his second goal of the night and Chesters third.  Snedker had again palmed away a shot, this time from Rooney, and again it was straight into the path of Hannah who made no mistake this time and fired the ball into the back of the net.

Hockaday sent on the second new signing of the day, George Obosu, but it was merely to give the tall striker some game time and not to somehow salvage the game with a heart stopping hat trick in the dying minutes of the game.

At least with this defeat we don't move from twenty third place in the table with neither Torquay and Halifax playing tonight.  On Saturday we face Aldershot at home so we might, at least, be able to continue our winning home form.

 Goals for Chester: Hannah 42, 81, Rooney 46
 Goal for Harriers: Langmead 40

REFEREE:

Mr J Johnson Liverpool