Harriers keep the score down to four this time

The Harriers continued where they left off on Tuesday evening by scoring a further four goals to add to the Tamworth woes.  Today's scoreline of 4-0 sees the Reds into the next round of the FA Cup in a game that was so one-sided we could have easily doubled our tally.

It was obvious that following the 6-0 drubbing they received four days ago that Tamworth would return to Aggborough looking to keep the scoreline down to 0-0 and give them the reward of a replay back at theirs this Tuesday.  To achieve that they dropped the wide men and started the game in a 5-3-2 formation hoping to keep our on fire strikers at bay.  It didn't pan out that way though and we grabbed our first goal of the game earlier than we did on Tuesday when Elton N'Gwatala kicked off the scoring with just seven minutes on the clock.

We started the game with one obvious change.  There was no place for James McQuilkin whom was missing through a hamstring strain.  Ashley Carter came in to replace him while on the seven man bench was academy keeper Thomas Palmer - the brother of former loanee Alex.

Elton's goal came from a corner that he sidefooted home through the static Tamworth defence and then just four minutes later it was Harriers two goals to the good.  From another corner we gained our second goal when Mani Dieseruvwe was left un-marked on the far post to rifle the ball into the net.  Even though Tamworth had arrived here intending to defend stoutly after it had taken thirteen minutes to open the scoring in the first game it had taken only eleven minutes of this game to go into a 2-0 lead.

Back to the drawing board for Andy Morrell then.

By the time our third went in he must have thrown that drawing board away into the pit of despondency.  Arthur Gnahoua had the ball at his feet after collecting from Zaine Francis-Angol and took it into the area but his cross was deflected, kindly for us, into the path of Mani who coolly dispatched it home for the second of his brace.

We sat back for a while and the game became a little scrappy from our point of view and we began to allow Tamworth more of the ball.  They could have pulled at least one goal back when Ross Dyer headed wide from a corner and then Andy Burns almost scored a wonder goal when his half volley just skimmed above the bar as it left Sam Hornby rooted to his line.

In the dying minutes of the half we could have increased the lead further when Tyrell Waite skimmed a shot across the face of James Belshaws goal and the Gnahoua forced their keeper into an exceptionally good save when it looked for all the world to be going in for our fourth.

The second half was a much more laid back affair as Tamworth knew that they were beaten and we didn't seem to want to inflict much more pain on their travelling fans.  All ninety eight of them didn't stop singing all game but kicking the back of the stand towards the end of the game was a little annoying.  How would they like it if we went to theirs and kicked the bricks of their bus shelter away end?

It took the Harriers a few minutes more to really finish the game off when Gnahoua ran onto Mani's knock down from a free kick and fire the ball under Belshaw for his sixth goal of the season.

We made a couple of changes and bought on Sam Austin in place of Tyrell Waite while a little later Liam Truslove arrived on the scene to replace Ryan Croasdale.  Tamworth made a double substitution soon after in an attempt to stem the tide with Louis Briscoe replacing Joe Clarke and Stefan Morley changing places with Stephen Thomassen.  All a little too late and probably just paying lip service to his bench.

With the loss of Croasdale we lost a little bit of bite in midfield but luckily for us Tamworth hadn't got the skill to do much about it.  Up front our strikers became a little profligate when the chances came - and there were plenty - but failed to make the most of them.  Tyrone Williams had a shot go over the bar while Rob Stambolziev, on for Gnahoua, fired goalwards only to see his shot headed away for a corner.

Further chances fell for N'Gwatala and Dieseruvwe but selfishness instead of passing resulted in wasteful shooting when better placed men could have done better.  That's just nit picking though because we had avoided a possible banana skin from a wounded animal and have now progressed into the 3rd qualifying round where we can still draw the short straw and be paired up with Stourbridge in the draw on Monday.

Please God, no!

 Goals for Harriers: N'Gwatala 7, Dieseruvwe 11,18, Gnahoua 52

REFEREE:

Mr D Bourne Nottingham