harriers-online match preview
12th March 2004 
HOME
Leyton Orient
At Brisbane Road
Saturday
13/3/04 3:00pm
Can we take our recent excellent home form on our travels?

Up until a few weeks ago we were getting some decent results away from home but in front of a home crowd the Harriers were failing to perform.  That has now been rectified with brilliant home wins against Swansea, Northampton and York City.  In between the first two we saw our away form go out of the window with a 5 - 0 reversal at Doncaster.

With a much tougher defence and a rampant front line I think we'll be too much for a declining Orient side.

From being in the play-offs at the start of last month they have now only picked up two points from a possible twelve in the past month.  Last week they got a 1 - 1 draw in a disappointing game at Bury.

Their manager, Martin Ling, has told the once regular striker, Lee Thorpe, that his services are no longer required at Brisbane Road after he came back from a month long loan to struggling 2nd Division Grimsby Town.  He is now back home in London but his contract has been terminated and another 3rd Div side, Swansea?, are expected to sign him soon.

Missing for the O's will be Matt Lockwood.  He broke his big toe in January but complications are keeping him out for longer than he should have been.  Dave McGhee is also out with an ankle injury and Simon Downer is out on loan at Aldershot.


Scott Stamps will be out for us, serving another one match ban for his recent sending off at Doncaster.  I thought that because he's now on ten yellow cards that the punishment would be stronger but it appears that the FA have changed the rules half way through the season.  Good thing really.

Jan Molby was considering bringing in another loan player, Steve Burton?, after being told that we could.  At first it was thought that we had completed our quota of eight during one season but the fact that we signed Adam Murray permanently after a previous loan spell overrid that.

Lee Jenkins was supposed to play in Wednesday nights friendly against Hereford but was pulled late on with a swelling to his dodgy knee.  He's back in training now but won't be available for the Orient game.  Neither will Adam Willis, who could be on his way out of the club under a similar kind of insurance payment that saw Mike Marsh forced out of the professional game, and Matt Gadsby who is still out with a stomach strain.

Scott Rickards and Bo Henriksen should both be available for selection if needed.  They also starred in the friendly and it was Bo who put in a full 90 minutes and scored the only goal of what was a drab un-committed affair.  He will be hoping for a return to the ground where he made his debut for the Harriers by scoring a brilliant goal for us in our 3 - 1 win in November 2001.

Final bit of news is that Ian Foster will almost certainly see his loan from Chester City extended, probably until the end of the season, and Danny Williams may also be returning from the same club after his loan spell looks likely to be cut short following a bad back injury received in Chesters game against Burton Albion.

Teams

Harriers from:
Brock, Danby, Sall, Hatswell, Murray, Coleman, Yates, Hinton, Keates, Viveash, Parrish, Bennett, Betts, Ward, Christiansen, Henriksen, Rickards, J Williams, Foster.

Orient from:
Morris, Harrison, Joseph, Heald, Miller, Brazier, Alexander, Toner, Mackie, W Jones, Tate, Purser, Ibehre, Peters, Hunt, Barnard, Newey, Sam, Saah, P Jones, Zakuani
Previous games against Orient
Harriers score first
Home
Away
2003 - 04
2 - 1
 
2002 - 03
3 - 2
0 - 0
2001 - 02
0 - 1
3 - 1
2000 - 01
2 - 1
0 - 0

links to some
orient websites:

official site
o net
click below
to select your
head2head
If you came here from an external link then please click below to go to:
Harriers-Online

Site © 1999- Harriers-Online.co.uk - all rights reserved  
This site is 100% unofficial and in no way represents the views of Kidderminster Harriers FC