With the league games finally at an end now comes the hard part. Getting promotion via the play offs where our position in the final table means nothing.With the Harriers finishing in second place thanks to that 3-1 win, at home to Bradford Park Avenue on Saturday, we find ourselves up against the side that finished 5th (or 6th if you don't discount Darlington). Chorley FC are that team while Halifax and Salford will also battle it out for a place in the final on Saturday 13th May.
In our previous two meetings in the league this season we haven't come out too well with a 0-0 draw at home to them in August and a 2-1 defeat at Victory Park in February. With their notoriously tough defence our play off games will not be high scoring affairs and with the first leg being at theirs then we know already to our detriment that their playing surface is not very good and tends to slope in various directions from whichever angle you view it. In February it took us a while to adapt to it and at the start of the second half they scored again to go two up but we eventually improved enough to claim a goal back but in the end it wasn't enough to save us from defeat.
All season Chorleys form has been very good and they fully deserve their place in this mini league. Matt Jansen, the manager, has done an admirable job with them considering the comparatively small size of the club and lesser finances than other teams here. His players always give 100% and that goes a long way towards a winning mentality, a mentality that we will need too if we hope to reach the end.
We could be without quite a number of important faces tomorrow evening. Elton N'Gwatala (left) went off clutching his shoulder again on Saturday and went to hospital to check it out again while both Daniel Nti and James McQuilkin missed the game with minor injuries so hopefully they'll all be available to us as will Josh Ezewele who is now on his way back from a calf injury.
We do have the bonus of quite a number of loanees back with us. Mani Dieseruvwe back from Boston is the main one after he scored once in eight games for them. Others include Wayne Thomas, Ben Clarke, George Forsyth and Kennedy Digie.
With Chorley being secretive we don't know yet what they will be doing but we do know that Jack Sampson won't be playing due to a three match ban following his dismissal at Gloucester City a week or so ago.
We already know how tough games against them can be and tomorrow evening won't be any different. It's going to be hard to say wether we can come back from there with an all important win but if we do then that would go a long way to seeing us through to the final.
Photo © KHFC
Teams:
Harriers from:
Hornby, A Palmer, Hodgkiss, Hancocks, Ezewele, Lowe, Webb, Williams, Digie, Carter, Knights, Osborne, Evans, Thomas, Tunnicliffe, Clarke, Francis-Angol, Croasdale, Forsyth, Gnahoua, Truslove, Austin, A Brown, McQuilkin, N'Gwatala, Nti, Taylor, Sonupè, Ironside, Dieseruvwe, Waite.
Chorley FC from:
Ashton, Branagan, Dibble, Azam, Beesley, Blakeman, Challoner, Charnock, Jordan, Leather, Teague, Jarvis, Cottrell, Samizadeh, Lynch, O'Keefe, Roscoe, Whitham, Carver, McDaid, Walker.
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