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Twenty Two years ago today Hereford United drew with Kidderminster Harriers at Edgar Street.
A look back to December 27th 1999.
HEREFORD United 1 - 1 Kidderminster Harriers
The first league
match between these two sides in the Christmas period was exactly as
expected - a hard fought encounter with little between them. Over a
thousand Harriers supporters travelled to Edgar Street, and many of them
did a spot of bargain-hunting in town before kickoff.
Hereford
United lined up with a full strength side after their narrow defeat to
Leicester in the FA Cup tie ten days ago. United had slipped to 12th
place after their defeat at Scarborough last weekend, and Kidderminster
had risen to fourth. A win would have put them top (because of the early
kick-off time).
Paul Fewings opened the scoring on six minutes.
Tim Clarke dropped the ball at the near post, but Hereford United's star
striker was on hand to knock the ball into the back of the net. The
former Scunthorpe United goalkeeper didn't have a very good match, with
Fewings charging down some of his clearances, one just going wide of the
post.
United continued to pressurise the Kidderminster defence
throughout the first period. Adie Smith played well snubbing out any
decent United attacks, but Kidderminster couldn't get the momentum
going. Ian Wright was booked on 26 minutes for a foul, but five minutes
previously Tony James was brought off injured after a seemingly
unfortunate challenge. He was replaced by James Wall in the centre of
defence.
The second half started and Kidderminster came back into
the match. Paul Fewings was looking increasingly frustrated by the
Kidderminster defence and was booked for a foul after just six minutes.
He was also spoken to by the referee in the first half to calm down. Two
minutes later came another yellow card, this time to Dean Bennett for
another foul. Kidderminster, however, were starting to look like the
better side. The referee, Mr Tanner from Bristol, awarded a series free
kicks and corners as United fought back but Kidderminster broke and were
unlucky not to have a shot when Gavin Williams zoomed back to make the
challenge. Paul Parry, usually so influential, didn't get into the match
as he would have liked, despite being in acres of space at times. He
was brought off midway through the half and replaced by veteran Ian
Rodgerson.
Kidderminster started to improve in attacking
positions with Stewart Hadley and former United attacker Ian Foster
linking well. It was Hadley who eventually opened his sides account with
a well taken effort twenty minutes from time. Jones palmed away a shot,
but it rebounded off the post for Hadley to bury from three yards.
United knew that Kidderminster could now go for the winner. The
disappointing Foster was removed for Mark Druce, a £10,000 signing from
United last year. He was greeted with a hostile atmosphere from the
Edgar Street faithful, but didn't get a decent effort to score the
winner. Paul Fewings was then awarded a penalty for a bad challenge,
much to the anger of the Kidderminster team. After consulting with his
assistant, the penalty was give, but Clarke saved with his legs.
Paul
Fewings was removed with six minutes to go, as the crowd greeted the
substitute with the cry "Le-roy, Le-roy!". Leroy May came on, but
couldn't make the required impact. His first touch was right in front of
goal, but his overhead kick flew just over Tim Clarke's cross-bar. A
fair result, and all eyes will be on Aggborough next Monday for the
second leg of this league fixture.
Attendance = 4,437
Man of the match - Adie Smith (Kidderminster)
Hereford - Jones, Sturgess, Lane, James, Wright, Snape, Williams, Taylor, Fewings, Elmes, Parry
Sub(s) who came on - May, Wall
GRAHAM
Turner post match comment: "On the balance of play we had more chances,
but we needed a second goal to make the game safe. We didn't play
anywhere near as well defensively as we did in our cup game at Leicester
and at times we were sloppy on the ball."