We NEVER win away on the first day! :(

Kidderminster Harriers 2 Woking 1: 13 August 2005
by Mick

Waking up at 8am through nerves. Ferociously writing out directions because you forgot you needed to know where you were going. Endless discussion on what the team line up will be and more importantly what it should be. I've missed all this for the last two months and more. Even the gutting emotion coming back of how close we had come to a satisfactory away point on the first day.

We've lost a number of first day away games, too many to count almost, it's almost like tradition. A tradition, which continued this afternoon, unfortunately, but it was different to the other years. Different because at various points I thought it wasn't going to happen, right up till the very last minute, in fact, on arrival home my Dad didn't even know that we hadn't clung on to a point and that they had nicked it in the last minute. Just to make matters worse, all those defeats before were at least nice sunny days, yet we had torrential rain throughout that looked like the beginning scenes of Twister. I'll be honest with you; I've never seen Twister so I'm only guessing…

Kidderminster have a nice ground, two terraces behind the goals and two seating areas along the sides. Not quite worth paying £16 to sit in said seats admittedly but still not bad. The tannoy system was too loud and along with that came a perhaps too excited announcer who couldn't seem to get a single Cards' player name right throughout.

Anyway, the game. It was a promising start. After just a couple of minutes the ball was in the Kiddy net but disallowed for a foul on the keeper' which it has to be said, probably was. The new look defence of Liam Cotterill, Gary MacDonald, James Aggrey and Simon Jackson (according to the announcer anyway) looked neat and tidy for the first half with a confident Sian Jalal behind them. Christie looked a little lost up front and the only threat seemed to come from Michael Blackwood who gave Jackson and others a torrid time probing down the left-hand side. His speed and tricky caused difficulty but the speedy Jacko did well enough to keep with him most of the time.

Glenn had bravely gone with a very attacking formation - Ian Shelley, Karl Murphy and Steve Evans making up a three man midfield with Lloyd (or possibly even Roy at one point) Blackman just ahead of them and Rico and Macca2 up front. It didn't quite work. At times the triangle of the front three caused problems and linked up well, best of all when McAllister threaded through Richards one-on-one in the first half. He should have buried the opportunity but hit it too close to the keeper'.

The home side rifled in a number of long shots, some whistling a bit too close to the goal for my liking but Jalal never looked too worried, he was called on a couple of time to slide out and take the ball but the defence never looked too uncomfortable. This even after Aggrey had been taken off for Creem L-Sahara (ok we can let him off that one!). El-Salahi is certainly quick but is also pretty raw and it was him being caught out that sent Christie clear but Karim recovered well to just about block out the striker. Overall, he had a promising and impressive game but will need to settle in to the Conference and realize the pace of the game.

It was a fairly entertaining first half and a good performance too, with a little more inventiveness going forward and some more precise passing there was a belief that the Cards could take the three points. Justin Richards' goal was more to do with a bit of luck and a hopeful cross than precision passing but after Selley and Evans were involved in the build up from a MacDonald free kick, it was Richards who managed to poke a foot onto it and keeper' Danby missed it allowing Richards to roll it into the empty net and celebrate as passionately as always in front of the fans.

The hopes were raised at that point, with a goal lead and a resolute defence the points seemed likely. McAllister was replaced with Sharpling (or Sharplings) up front to introduce more pace and the attack looked a bit more lively too, Richards getting away and lobbing just wide over the keeper' and Sharpling almost getting onto a through ball too.

However, at the other end the resolute defence seemed to suffer when Sheldon and loan signing Atieno were introduced into the fray. The young (and most likely learning) back line was left reeling when Christie burst through and Liam collided with him clumsily, it looked a penalty and Mr Desmond agreed. Atieno calmly converted although Shwan wasn't far away from it but it still looked like the Cards were going to go away with a point.

Yet in the dying seconds the defence fell asleep again, never quite recovering from the shock of the first and Wayne Hatswell's cross was met by a strong firm header by Atieno and it looped wickedly just over Jalal's outstretched hand and into the net leaving the Cards stunned and frustrated. Letting in last minute goals has become a frequent problem over the last two seasons and here it was again just one game into the new season.

However, the fans and the team shouldn't be too disheartened. It was a promising performance and didn't deserve defeat, especially that cruelly. Before anyone jumps on Liam's back, he had a good game and although perhaps shouldn't have made a challenge for the penalty shouldn't be to blame for Christie getting into that position in the first place. I think I would rather see a proper 4-4-2 on Tuesday rather than this 4-3-3 type thing but then I'm not a manager (hence why I have called it a "4-4-3 type thing", I suppose).

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