The Harriers need to recover quickly from the ashes of that lesson learnt on Tuesday evening when Brackley inflicted our first defeat of the new season on us. Coming so soon after that massive win away at Curzon made it a hard pill to swallow.It was obvious to all watching that Colin Gordons plan of pure football was never going to work in this division and that we need to adapt to the rules that the other teams that have been here for years have adopted. Brackley were a good example of that and played the waiting game as we tippy tappied around them looking for that inspired run from midfield and then taking an eternity to shoot once we had got near to the goal. Once the muscle came out then we were knocked off the ball far too easily and then watched as they bored down on our goal to strike terror into our defensive ranks.
We don't have the players that can use a bit of muscle when needed and that's just what we need in this lowly place. We could have Wayne Thomas available for the game and he could be the kind of player we need but he is a bit slow to turn and he also has a groin injury so even though his suspension is now spent he may not be fit anyway.
There shouldn't be any other injuries to other players so I expect John Eustace to more or less go with the team that started against Brackley with the exception of Andre Brown (left) taking over the leading line from Mani Dieseruvwe after the manager enthused about Browns cameo appearance as a sub.
We last played Chorley some twenty six years ago so memories of them will be thin amongst the Harriers fans. They started their new campaign with a credible draw at FC Utd on Saturday just a few miles down the road from where we were putting six past Curzon. They didn't play in midweek due to their game at Darlington being called off due to Darlingtons pitch at Bishop Auckland not being ready yet??
Chorley have an ex Harrier in their ranks and he's someone that no doubt will not be looking forward to a return to Aggborough. Josh O'Keefe had a somewhat torrid time with us after a section of the fans decided that he wasn't good enough and his workrate was poor. In the end the barracking got to him and he went on loan to Macclesfield for a while before joining Altrincham last season.
Now here's one for the older ones amongst us but do you remember Mat Jansen? He was the Blackburn and England striker that had a career ending motorbike accident in Italy that left him in a coma for a week. He tried to make a comeback after but had to drop into non league football to get any game time - Wrexham, Leigh Genesis and finally at Chorley. He is now the Chorley manager and seems to be doing ok.
The Magpies - that's their nickname - will be without skipper Andy Teague after he got his marching orders for two yellows at FC Utd on Saturday. They have no injury problems.
I think that tomorrow we might see a stronger side lining up to gain our first home win of the season and not taking Chorley so lightly but with them being old hands at this kind of thing we could end up with a draw. We'll see.
Photo © KHFC
Teams:
Harriers from:
Hornby, J Brown, Hodgkiss, Lowe, Hancocks, Digie, Williams, Carter, Thomas, Tunnicliffe, Clarke, Millichamp, Francis-Angol, Stambolziev, Gnahoua, Truslove, Forsyth, Austin, A Brown, McQuilkin, Sweeney, N'Gwatala, Dieseruvwe, Waite, Taylor.
Chorley from:
Ashton, Azam, Blakeman, Beesley, Carver, Challoner, Charnock, Cottrell, Gonzales, Jordan, Jarvis, Leather, Lynch, O'Keefe, Roscoe, Walker, Whitham
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