The Harriers pay their second visit to Blackpool tomorrow when we take on league leaders AFC Fylde in this top of the table clash. In what is possibly our most important away game of the season for us we'll be hoping to put our dismal away from to the backs of our minds and try our utmost to get the first away win in months.We'll have to do it without both Elton N'Gwatala and Arthur Gnahoua though with Elton missing for a third week with a shoulder injury while Arthur missed last weeks home win against Alfreton last Saturday with a hamstring injury. The Harriers management took the opportunity to change things around a bit by moving Tyrell Waite into the centre forward position and bringing new signing Daniel Nti in for his first start in his place. Sam Austin also came in for only his fifth start of the season in place of Arthur and hopefully there will be more long overdue starts with his pace making mincemeat of the Alfreton defence.
Liam Truslove (right) continued to deputise for Elton and he got himself on the scoresheet again with a finely taken goal. Liam is a refreshing change to our usual line-up with his 'shoot on sight' attitude that others could learn from. As for Tyrell he did ok in a different position to the norm but still lacks the muscular attributes needed to lead the line. There has been talk of the club trying to get Harry White back to the club on loan from Solihull and he could be the answer we;re looking for but the talk is also of him failing a medical so that might now be dead in the water.
In the reverse fixture back in October we experienced a see-saw game with Fylde taking a 3-2 lead after we had led the game twice. We came from behind to eventually draw the game 3-3 with a last gasp equaliser coming from a Keith Lowe header. A better referee that day might have seen the Harriers win the game after having a goal disallowed after crossing the line and then a penalty appeal turned down following a blatant handball in the area.
As for tomorrow then we need to be on our mettle if we have any hope of stopping their goal machine for scoring. Danny Rowe scored at our place and so far this season has scored forty goals in keeping his team at the top of the table. It would be interesting to work out where Fylde would be in the table without his goals.
They'll be without quite a few of their players for the game. Defender Macauley Wilson has gone back to his parent club, Blackpool, after getting injured in their win at Gainsborough last Saturday while Josh Langley underwent surgery this week on a groin problem while James Hardy (scorer of two of the goals against us in October) will also be missing with a groin injury although he is now back in light training.
Fylde have also been bringing players in with David Morgan signing from Nuneaton two weeks ago but he also got injured at Gainsborough and will be a doubt. They have taken Laurence Maguire on loan from Chesterfield and yesterday their former player Josh Kay came back to them on loan from Barnsley after another loanee Dan Jones returned to Grimsby.
A few weeks ago we were all thinking how close we were to Fylde in the league and if we could win our three games in hand we could well overtake them at the top. As we now realise it was just idle thinking that we could win all of our games in hand including those away from home and today we're further from them than we were a month ago. We're now fighting for place in the play-offs because if our away form doesn't improve soon then we'll be missing out on those too.
Could we pull off a shock and actually win at Fylde or is that too much to ask?
Photo © KHFC
Teams:
Harriers from:
Hornby, T Palmer, A Palmer, Ezewele, Lowe, T Williams, Carter, Knights, Osborne, Evans, Thomas, Tunnicliffe, Francis-Angol, Croasdale, Truslove, Austin, A Brown, McQuilkin, Nti, G Taylor, Dieseruvwe, Waite.
AFC Fylde from:
R Taylor, Collins, Kennedy, S Williams, Baker, Bond, Bradley, Morgan, Daniels, Dixon, Maguire, Finley, C Hughes, Kay, Blinkhorn, M Hughes, Rowe.
Talk about the game here
Links to AFC Fylde websites here
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