The Harriers gave struggling Barrow their first double win of the season today when they went down by a single goal from Jason Walker just a few minutes from the end of normal time. Barrow won by the same scoreline at Aggborough earlier in the season and following last weeks defeat against Weymouth we were hoping for a chance to get back on track.
It wasn't to be and a bad injury to Russell Penn has now added to our worries prior to the home game against second placed Histon this coming Tuesday. Russ injured his knee on the edge of the area just after the start of the second half and after a long period of treatment was stretchered off and taken to hospital. It's not known yet what the situation with him is and it's doubtful if he'll make the Histon game.
New signing
Craig Armstrong made his debut for us displacing Lee Baker at left back who in turn did not even make the squad. Other changes were a rare start for Darryl Knights and a recall to the side for both Matt Barnes-Homer and Dean Bennett with Stefan Moore and Martin Brittain dropping to the bench.
A fairly equal, but turgid, first half saw the Harriers on top but without a real chance of scoring cropping up for us. Following an early chance from Barrow's Paul Brown with a volley that went well wide Andy Ferrell also sent a shot in a similar direction.
The game then went into a lull and it wasn't until just over five minutes before the end of the first half that we had our first real chance of scoring. Keith Lowe sent over a cross that landed perfectly for the diminutive Darryl Knights to send a header crashing against Alan Martin's crossbar.
Lowe could have scored himself a minute later but his downward header went just the wrong side of the post.
HT: 0 - 0
As mentioned earlier five minutes into the half came the bad injury to the England 'C' international, Russ Penn, and after a long delay for treatment the game continued with Barrow taking the upper hand. Very little still happened though, just two teams trying to find a way past each others strong defence's until finally Barrow had their first real shot on target when a free kick from Mark Boyd bought out the best in Adam Bartlett.
Our best chance fell to Dean Bennett but he froze when shaping to shoot and dragged his shot wide of the goal after achieving the hardest part of getting there. Within minutes Barrow had scored the goal that they had wanted from Walker.
Bartlett had just tipped a fine header from Nathaniel Kerr over the bar for a corner but from the set piece Walker got the highest to send it crashing home for the winning goal. Somehow Walker injured himself as he scored and went off with an eye/head injury after an extended treatment.
In the eight minutes of added injury time we seemed to wake up and could have forced a draw when first substitute Stefan Moore lobbed the keeper but the ball went the wrong side of the post. Mark Creighton came even closer with a shot that looked to be going in but then struck the keepers legs and away to safety.
It wasn't the result we needed following the Weymouth debacle but we did come so very close to gaining a point. We have another tough game coming up on Tuesday against Histon and hopefully we can get our season back on track with a win.
