Son of Eric watched Hereford defeat Kidderminster 2-0 last night at Edgar Street
Hereford played Kidderminster at potentially a good time. Would the pressure of fixtures and the privilege of playing West Ham and star player Jarrod Bowen in the FA Cup play on the Harriers minds? Ahead of the game Harriers fans had a jaunty confident step, and for Hereford supporters the body language was one of duty rather than confidence. Several hundred Kiddy fans made the short journey and the gate of 2,284 was reasonable for a Tuesday night. It was cold and misty, with no need to let off flares to create an “atmosphere”. There were long queues for Kidderminster fans from 45 minutes before the game. The club’s ticket system which was glitchy on Saturday struggled again and a power cut impeded services in the main stand, so the game was delayed for fifteen minutes.
Hereford lined up with captain Hall in goal and the youth backline of Ginella, Egan, Pollock and Revan which had impressed against Gateshead unchanged. Forsyth dropped to the bench with Vincent switching to the central holding role with Lloyd to the left and Kouhyar a little more advanced on the right. Owen-Evans and McLean remained the wide men with Gordon coming back in up front, with Storey one of the substitutes. Free scoring Kidderminster rotated bringing in Freemantle for Morgan-Smith after their impressive win at Darlington.
Both teams went at it from the start with Kidderminster clearing a Lloyd cross which Gordon got his head to at the expense of a corner.
When Kidderminster won their first corner, they whipped a high arcing ball to the near post. They clearly had a game plan for former Harrier Brandon as at every dead ball opportunity they put the ball into this corner of supposed uncertainty. The Kidderminster scouting was fallible as captain Hall dealt with this tactic comfortably all night long.
Kidderminster’s front men had scored more goals than the whole Hereford side and you could see how with their fluid play, Sterling especially prominent. Austin though was not as effective as his previous visit in the Trophy with Lloyd often picking him up. Kidderminster looked the more likely getting shots on target, with Hereford relying on breaks. On the half hour mark Kidderminster took Freemantle off with a strain and brought the dangerous Morgan-Smith on. Hereford made a clever tactical adjustment. Lloyd sat more with Vincent, Kouhyar switched to a wider right position and roamed forward more, with Owen-Evans adopting a roving central position playing just behind Gordon.
This immediately improved Hereford’s play and they got more of a grip with Tom hard to pick up and Maz’s silky skills guiding the ball into dangerous positions. The two veterans in front of the four young guns, made for a tough defence. A Revan cross found Pollock and his header was deflected for a corner, from which Pollock just headed over. On forty minutes Kouhyar found Pollock who was getting joy in the Kidderminster box, his header down was powerful, and Kidderminster scooped it desperately away slicing it. The ball came down just by the penalty spot. Gordon was in front of it and quickly swivelled and adjusted taking the falling ball first time on the full hitting it clean, hard and low into the bottom left corner. This was an outstanding technical finish by Jaanai.
Hereford went in ahead having taken control of the game with their tactical switch. Kidderminster came out keen to equalise with Lloyd and Vincent vigilant. Having broken up a Kidderminster attack the ball came to Kouhyar in a central position he quickly swept out a precise ball to the right in front of McLean who raced on to it without having to break stride so sweet was the pass. Ryan advanced and the Kidderminster defence knew that he could beat them all ends up for pace. They tried to shepherd him wide, but he cut inside drawing them out to challenge him. As he came under pressure McLean intelligently lanced a ball through the defenders and across the edge of the box to Tom who took the ball superbly sending it back across the keeper for a brilliant breakaway goal and probably Hereford’s best goal of the season so far.
Hereford took off Carrington who apart from one outstanding block had been one of Harriers less effective players, bringing on Dinanga a striker on loan from Altrincham to try and get a goal back. However, two goals down their best prospect seemed to be a postponement with fog rolling in especially at the Blackfriars end. Thankfully the fog eased a little, but it was still a misty view for the rest of the game.
Hereford wobbled a little as Kidderminster pressed and one very poor pass by Kouhyar almost played Ginella into a lot of trouble. Coming back from illness, Gowling acted immediately and took Maz off, bringing Storey on with Tom dropping back. Hereford now sat a little deeper and invited Kidderminster on, aiming for quick breaks to find Storey who failed to capitalise on his first opportunity, and McLean who when surging forwards was taken out by Penny who was booked.
Kidderminster took off Hemmings and brought on White. Sterling had hit one free kick just over the bar and now fired one on target which Hall did well to save. With Hereford’s next break Owen-Evans found himself just past the halfway line and saw Simpson off his line so tried an audacious 45-yard chip but it went wide of the post. McLean was booked for a challenge but in the mist it was hard to see what happened. Gordon went off to warm applause after his best performance for Hereford and Klukowski came on to shore up the rear-guard taking one shot full in the face.
With Kidderminster pushing forward Storey outpaced Lowe and was one on with Simpson but shot low and hard allowing a save, when as Gowling keeps saying about his strikers’, keepers only make saves because players do not put the ball in the corners.
McLean went off to take some time off the clock as the game entered injury time with Campbell making his debut.
Man of the Match on the night was leading scorer Owen-Evans and he had a very fine game playing on the wing, in the hole, as a second striker and when Kouhyar went off took on dead ball responsibilities. However, I would suggest that Jamie Egan was Hereford’s outstanding player. The Kidderminster attackers tried to rough him up and he stood firm. When they tried holding him or grabbing his shirt, he made it clear and showed the referee and at times gave them a simple push off. He may have been playing youth football, but he was one of the toughest men on the pitch. In Ireland he played for the noted St. Kevin’s Boys which produced Dara O’Shea. Whilst you would not want to put the pressure of that comparison on his shoulders, he has many similar attributes. He does not ball watch and is constantly screening to see where the attackers are, and in the last quarter he was the player pushing forward with his arms out taking the defensive line up the pitch. This was one of the top attacks in the division and Egan and Pollock nullified them.
Former Kidderminster players Hall and Vincent enjoyed their evening producing their best performances of the season. Gordon and Pollock similarly played at a very high level. The thrown together back line have been excellently coached and having played well against Gateshead will surely start again together on Saturday.
This was the Bulls best performance of the season, a hugely enjoyable game of football with both sides providing lots of entertainment on a bitterly cold evening.
Hereford: Hall, Egan, McLean, Kouhyar, Owen-Evans, Gordon, Lloyd, Pollock, Vincent, Revan, Gillela.
Subs: Raison, Forsyth, Campbell, Klukowski, Storey.