It's been a long time coming

After twenty games and four months the Harriers finally came away from a game with all three points in the bag, a clean sheet at the other end and a surge up the table into twenty third place.  When Jordan Murphys header went into the net in the eighty seventh minute Aggborough erupted into celebration and then for the next seven minutes into nail biting frustration.  In the end we managed to cross the line with the win and to the long serving fans home happy and the Woking fans depressed.

With the news before the game that we had signed another goalkeeper, Jonathon Brown, we had the worry who would be starting in goal for us.  Would it be Alex Palmer after his shocker at Stourbridge last week or would it be the more secure Dean Snedker back in favour?  Thankfully the right choice was made and Snedker regained his place.

We had two other new signings on show for us today with midfielder Dino Fazlic in on the bench while making a return to the club was Matt Barnes-Homer on a month long loan from Aldershot and he was starting the game upfront in place of Reece Styche who joined up with Macclesfield on loan yesterday.

A nervous start from both sides was a bit of a worry with mistakes all over the park and it looked like it was going to be another long day.  Woking were the first to make a break for goal though with chances for Joey Jones and Josh Goddard being the two of note.  Soon after we responded with a chance that MBH should really have done better when Lathaniel Rowe-Turner crossed the ball well but the returning fans favourite ballooned his volley well over the bar when it would have been easier to roll the ball past the dodgy Nick Hamman in the Woking goal.

That was about it for the Harriers as we struggled to get our game going against a Woking side that upped their game slightly in an effort to go into the break with a lead.  Another chance to score fell for Goddard but Snedker was having a good, safe game and kept his rising shot out.

Both sides went into the break looking well worth the relegation candidates tag.

After the break the Harriers head coach, Dave Hockaday, sprung a surprise with a double substitution.  Off went Rowe-Turner and the under performing Luke Maxwell to be replaced with Matt Young for LRT and new signing Fazlic for Maxwell.  It seemed a strange move at first but straight away we looked more adventurous and began to take control of midfield.

An early chance came our way because of this change when MBH, having a good game on his return, beat his marker yet again then crossed the ball in low for Jordan Murphy to run onto but the youngster, on loan from Walsall, didn't quite connect to the ball and it flipped over his leg and cleared to safety up the park by a Woking defender.

Barnes-Homer was again the supplier a few minutes later when he played the ball in for Ben Whitfield but his composure went missing for a second and he fired the ball straight at Hamman who had the easy task of gathering it safely.

We then seemed to go back into our shell following that miss and once again Woking began to come more into the game.  The former Braintree striker, Dan Holman, tried a shot from distance but Snedker did well to palm his shot out for a corner.

We made our third change of the day with Jake Green coming on for Zaine Francis-Angol with the wide man looking to have picked up an injury.  Probably a hamstring after he over stretched earlier to stop a ball going out of play.

The next passage of play to produce anything fell for Woking with Holman again coming close.  He fired the ball wide after Adam Cunnington headed the ball on for him and then saw a header of his own held well by Snedker at his near post.

With time trickling away, and the sun going down, it was imperative that we we raised our game enough to get a long overdue win.  We chased a long ball down that had landed some way from Hamman but for reasons known only to himself he came out of his area to clear it and made a complete hash of it.  Murphy got to it at the same time as Hamman fell over but unluckily he couldn't quite get hold of the ball cleanly and the Woking keeper recovered enough to boot it to safety.

Whitfield was our main outlet in trying to get the ball into dangerous places and also possibly the one with the best chance of scoring.  He tested the keeper with a shot that stung his hands just minutes before we got that long overdue winning goal.

Matt Young got free down the left and crossed the ball in firmly towards the far post where Murphy was perfectly placed to bury the ball into the net with an equally firm header.  Aggborough erupted.

With the four minutes added on it was time to start worrying and hoping that we could somehow hold on.  That we did and once again the ground erupted in celebration of our first league win since last March and our first clean sheet of the season.  There's now over a weeks break from playing with it being FA Cup weekend next Saturday and nothing doing for us.  Our next game will be Chester on Tuesday week and maybe, just maybe, our season will really be back on track.

 Goal for Harriers: Murphy 87

REFEREE:

Mr A Young Cambridgeshire