The Harriers boss, Ian Britton, sprung a few surprises at the Mem today when he opted to go with just Bo Henriksen alone up front. That was the first surprise but the most perplexing one has to be the absence of Adam Murray in midfield.
After last Saturdays exciting debut from the Derby youngster the Harriers fans were anxious to see more of the player that could add the spark that's been missing all season.
As it was we missed him badly. Again the midfield seemed to be devoid of any creative ideas although we are at last managing to keep the ball on the deck more often.
One player that could give us a spark was Lloyd Dyer. He was bought in from WBA yesterday for an initial month long loan and, on this showing, once he settles in could be a big asset for us out wide.
During the opening spell he got the Harriers fans going with his ability to take a player or two on. When he finds his feet he should be good to watch.
Rovers had the first attack on goal when the lanky Agogo sent in a cross for Savage to give Brock his first taste of the ball. He dealt with it easily enough.
It was Agogo's turn to test Brockie next but again the Harriers stalwart coped with the ball with an excellent save.
The Harriers came back with a Lloyd Dyer free kick that sailed over the crossbar and minutes later another free kick that Danny Williams hit low and hard towards the bottom left corner of the goal. The only thing that stopped the ball going in was the outstretched foot of a Rovers defender who sent the ball wide.
After that the game became a midfield stalemate with the swirling wind spoiling any decent cross field passes. Strangely, any long cross aimed for the far side of the ground seemed to go straight out of play, as if the wind had helped it on it's way.
It was a relief when halftime came and we could sit down and try and ignore the witterings of the abysmal presenter.
HT. 0 - 0
The second half was more of the same really with Stuart Brock keeping out an excellent header from Dave Savage.
We had our only real chance of a goal when a shot from the heavily man marked Bo saw his shot deflected off Matt Gadsby to send the Pirates keeper, Miller, scrambling backwards to stop it entering his goal.
Just after Graham Hyde shot well wide for the Rovers they bought on their first substitute in Steve Hodge. Almost immediately he made his mark on the game in a way that we didn't need.
A cross from Danny Boxall was kept in play by Paul Tait who then sent it in for Hodge to sweep past the absent Harriers defenders and then lash the ball into the top right corner of the goal.
In answer to that Brit bought on Johnny Williams in place of Kenny Coleman and then a few minutes later on came Sean Flynn and Andy Bishop in place of the hard working Graham Ward and the solid Matt Gadsby. It didn't make any difference because Ray Graydon just sent on a defender and put ten men behind the ball.
The only way through was from set pieces and we had one of those towards the end but Danny Williams' powerful strike was hacked away to safety. We came close to equalising with some goal mouth scrambles but the ball didn't fall kindly and each time was cleared to safety by the Rovers defence.
A disappointing game ended with us failing to score for only the second time this season and this defeat sends us down to 16th place in the league.
Would the missing Adam Murray have made any difference?
FT. 1 - 0
The Harriers-Online
Man of the Match is : Stuart Brock
Another faultless display with some excellent saves when called on.
Best for them:
Junior Agogo. Very fast and similar in style to our own Lloyd Dyer.