The Harriers great away record continued at Nuneaton on Tuesday evening after we came away from the Liberty Way Stadium with two goals and three points. Our only other away game so far was the big win at Curzon but sadly our away form isn't carried back to Aggborough and that's where we need to start improving with a long overdue win.A home defeat to Brackley was no where near good enough and even though the draw against Chorley last Saturday was an improvement it still wasn't what we expect to see.
The game against Stalybridge tomorrow is our first meeting since February 1998 when we beat the Celtic 5-0 at home. All told we have played them fourteen times in a run since 1992 to '98 and won eight, drawn four lost two. Not a bad record to go into this game on the back of.
We could have Wayne Thomas lined up to play now that he is fit once more but we do have injuries to defenders Jared Hodgkiss and Jordan Tunnicliffe to cope with so Ty Williams could carry on deputising for Jared while Thomas could replace Tunnicliffe if called on. Robert Stambolziev may also still be missing through injury.
Upfront we should have no problems and hopefully James McQuilkin and Emmanuel Dieseruvwe (right) will be amongst the goals again, or even give someone else a chance.
The opening day of the season was the high point so far for Stalybridge when they beat Boston 1-0 on their own turf. Since then their season has gone quickly downhill with a 3-1 defeat at Stockport then a 4-0 reversal at Salford. When they did finally manage to escape the confines of Manchester they came down to Telford, on Tuesday, and promptly lost 2-0 so they'll want to see some improvement sooner than later but not at our expense hopefully.
They have some injuries but God knows who to. One telling factor is that they bought a keeper in on loan from Sheffield Utd before the Telford game but carried on playing the supposedly injured registered keeper Tony McMillan. They have also bought in a defender on loan from the Blades too with Graham Kelly arriving for a month.
They have just the one ex Harriers playing for them in Dan Pilkington. He left Barrow last season and was supposed to be retiring from the game but then surfaced at the Bower Fold a few weeks later.
As said this is a game that we have to win - aren't they all? - and if Telford can beat them then surely we can too.
STOP THE PRESSES: The Harriers second string keeper Jono Brown has, today, gone out on loan to Bristol based Yate Town and coming in is midfielder Ryan Croasdale. A free agent formerly of Sheffield Wednesday.
Photo © KHFC
Teams:
Harriers from:
Hornby, Hodgkiss, Lowe, Hancocks, Digie, Williams, Carter, Thomas, Tunnicliffe, Clarke, Croasdale, Francis-Angol, Stambolziev, Gnahoua, Truslove, Forsyth, Austin, A Brown, McQuilkin, Sweeney, N'Gwatala, Dieseruvwe, Waite, Taylor.
Stalybridge Celtic from:
McMillan, Willis, Hughes, Ryan, Shaw, Walters, Wisdom, Wylie, Bagshaw, Burns, Chalmers, Chippendale, Farrell, Hynes, Ball, Pilkington, Foy, Lettany, Mukendi, Kelly, Simm, Owens, Sherlock, Tames.
Talk about the game here
Links to Stalybridge Celtic websites here
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