Venue:
Aggborough
  att:  2162
  away fans:  ?
Extra info
Scunthorpe pinch the shirts off our backs.
Is there a plumber in the house?
Ian Britton sent to the stand.
Harriers
0
Scunthorpe
2
Byrne 58, McLean 77
 harriers-online match report
tuesday 16th september 2003 
HOME
What a shower


The Harriers failed to win again tonight in a game that had everything except goals for us.

At first, as the teams entered the field of play, we thought that Scunthorpe had failed to turn up and we were playing the reserves.  Scunthorpe had been told that they couldn't wear their usual claret and blue strip and, not bringing a change with them, had been forced to wear our third choice silver strip.

You have to admit that bright red, purple and sky blue are very similar colours.  Man Utd and Villa don't need to change so what's the problem?

The second event of the night was the sudden expulsion of water from the automatic sprinkler system midway through the second half that led to the expulsion of the Harriers manager, Ian Britton, from the dug out after he had kicked a ball down the players tunnel in frustration.  Pettiness of the highest order from the officials there.

The third unusual event was how we failed to score yet again in a game that we had so much possession in.

The first half was a well balanced affair with both sides playing good passing football but with clear cut chances at a premium.  With Adie Smith retained in defence there was a return to the side for Adam Willis after he had missed Saturday's game through suspension.  Kenny Coleman was the one who found himself dropped to make way for him.

Ten minutes into the game and the first chance fell for Scunthorpe when Stuart Brock failed to hold onto a long range shot from Matty Sparrow.  The ball fell kindly for Steve Torpey but his shot was off target.

Minutes later they came close again when a free kick, taken by Kevin Sharp, went just past Brockies left hand post.

It was fully 30 minutes before we had our first sight of goal.  Robert Betts attacked from the right and his cross to Danny Williams was played into the area and onto the head of Andy Bishop.  Bish's header was weak though and easily held by the Scunthorpe keeper, Russell.

Danny Williams had the last chance of the half for us when his powerful shot was pushed round the post by their keeper.


HT. 0 - 0

The second half commenced with a substitution when Matt Gadsby came on for Adie Smith.  A tactical move because there seemed to be little wrong with Adie.

Straight away we took the game by the scruff of the neck and produced our best football in ages.  Gadsby was the main instigator and gave a driving force to the midfield that had been absent during the first half.

It was a defence splitting pass from Matt that led to Bo Henriksen narrowly missing the target when he turned onto the pass and shot just wide from a few yards out.

The arrival of Gadsby had appeared to wake up Andy Bishop too and he continually exposed the frailties of the Scunthorpe defender Matt Jackson.  Time and again he left him for dead to whip in crosses that should have been buried by the still under performing Bo.

It was during this intense spell of pressure on the opposition goal that the pressure in the sprinkler system was released.  In a surreal moment we had our own version of the Trevi Fountain when water gushed onto the pitch.

After a few minutes, with the ref at a loss what to do, he decided to take the teams off.  Why? were they in danger.  As they started to leave the pitch a plumber turned up to replace the faulty washer and the ref bought the teams back on.

By this time Brit had lost his rag and was sent to the seats by the naive ref.

This enforced break in the game took it's toll and within minutes of the restart Scunthorpe had taken the lead totally against the run of play.

A long ball was played over the top to Cliff Byrne and, with the Harriers waiting for the linesman to raise his flag for offside, Byrne lobbed the ball over the top of the hesitant Stuart Brock, ran round him and tapped it home just to make sure.

Fans and team alike were gutted.  We still continued to play the better football but the urgency had gone now and the feeling that a second goal would come was there.

Scunthorpe had gotten wise to the threat from Bishop and put an extra man on him.  In an effort to extend our options up front Brit took off Craig Hinton and Adam Murray, replacing them with Dean Bennett and John Williams.

Scunthorpe must have thought their boat had come in with the extra space given to them and they soon punished us for it.  It was another long range shot from Sparrow that again Brock could only parry.  The loose ball fell kindly for them again and McLean was there to tidy up and knock the ball into the net.

With an extra 4 minutes added on we had a chance to make the scoreline look a bit more respectable when we were awarded a free kick on the edge of the area.  After a bit of arguing the ref moved the ball on 10 feet.  Danny took the close range kick with the Scunthorpe wall still too near him.  Sadly his venomous shot was well saved by Russell who pushed it out for a corner just as the full time whistle went.

We seem to be running short of luck lately and it must change soon.  The new striker that's been promised for this weekend may be the answer but I don't think John Williams is.  Neither was the decision to take Craig Hinton off.


FT. 0 - 2

The Harriers-Online
Man of the Match is : 
Andy Bishop or Lloyd Dyer.

They gave it to Dyer at the game but he didn't do anything different that Bishop hadn't done.

Best for them:  Sam Russell.  Decent keeper.

vote for your
man of the match now

Harriers  subs   cards      Scunthorpe  subs   cards 
Brock     Russell  
A Smith     Ridley  
Stamps     Byrne  
D Williams     Sharp
Hinton     Sparrow
Willis     Calvo-Garcia  
Murray     Kell  
Betts     Kilford
Bishop     Torpey  
Henriksen   McCombe  
Dyer     McLean  
SUBS:       SUBS:    
Shilton     Evans  
Gadsby     Barwick  
J Williams     Featherstone  
Ward     Hayes  
Bennett     Jackson  

REFEREE:
Mr A Marriner
Birmingham

links to some
scunthorpe websites:

official site
iron-online
scunny fan
iron bru net
click below
to see previous
results
Did you see the
same match as me?
Do you want to
write a report?
If you do then click here
If you came here from an external link
then please click below to go to
Harriers-Online
 
              Back to Top

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