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Anyway, at the risk of being accused of being ‘nasty’, ‘vile’ and ‘awful’ again by some Kiddy supporters (actually it might have been a Hereford fan who was offended enough last time to find my meandering and not-entirely-to-be-taken-seriously musings ‘awful’), this season’s Harriers vintage doesn’t seem to have quite the fizz of the ones the Bulls have faced since promotion to the National League North.
Tom Owen-Evans is, I’m sure, neither a ****** or a judas, despite one or two opinions voiced to the contrary from the Meadow End the other day, and looked to be one of the few in the Harriers ranks to carry a significant threat during the brief bits of the Boxing Day game in between the interminable waits for their goalie to take goal kicks. Kai Lissimore was energetic and effective, and perhaps will keep his place as a result, even though Harriers should have the players back for this one who were stuck on a motorway last week, missing the game and giving the youngster his chance.
Despite not seemingly quite having that fizz or ‘X’ factor, If Harriers are as solid, well-organised and tidy in possession as they were last week, depressingly that should be enough again here. The worry is that they look to have considerable scope for improvement, and can welcome back the traffic jam players.
But anyway, that’s enough about Kidderminster. Moving rapidly on so that I don’t upset the Hereford supporters who thought I concentrated far too much on being nasty, vile and awful to Harriers last time and wasn’t nearly nasty, vile or awful enough about my own team (isn’t Twitter lovely?), the opposition may have looked fairly average but they were comfortably too good on Boxing Day for a Bulls team that had seemingly left the promise of the performances against Kings Lynn, Darlington and Chorley behind and picked up where they left off against Peterborough Sports. This was reflected by an atmosphere flatter than any I can remember for these matches in the past.
The tactical approach yet again seemed to be to sit back and wait for a mistake from the opposition at 0-0, and when, yet again, that didn’t work, the hosts had their best spell of the game in trying to get back into it after conceding. Maybe just maybe if that had been the attitude at 0-0 they could have taken the lead rather than Kidderminster. I’m pretty sure I see these things far too simplistically.
Apart from one rip-roaring tackle, Thierry Latty-Fairweather seemed to spend the whole of the second half stretching, and it’s now been confirmed that his hamstring has gone again, so that would appear to be that in terms of his time with the Bulls.
On the evidence of Boxing Day and most of the last few months, this game looks to be a very tall order, and Harriers will be confident of doing the double back on their own patch and following that win at Edgar Street. Given that Hereford are away, there’s more justification for that counterattacking approach that singularly failed in the home match, and it might work this time…maybe? If one of those wriggly runs from Jack Holmes or Marcus Rus can get through on goal, or if Ryan McLean can find some form again from somewhere, who knows? ‘The Chief’ (sigh), as predicted, picked up a yellow card last time when confronted by the pace in the Hereford attacking ranks. That situation wasn’t then exploited nearly enough (whether through tactical inflexibility or simply because the team weren’t capable and Kidderminster didn’t allow it), but it’s something that should be focused on here.
Just before I upset the people who don’t like me trying to constructively criticise the team or the club and think that I’m too negative, as opposed to upsetting the people who think I’m not being negative enough, Aaron Amadi-Holloway played well on Boxing Day and looked to be on a different level to anyone else around him, either in blue or red. There are signs unfortunately that he’s starting to look frustrated that no-one else seems to be at that level. It would be lovely if he could be given the chance on New Year’s Day to be on a different level to anyone else around him, in blue, red, purple or whatever colours the teams are due to turn up in this time, on the bit of the pitch in which he’s supposed to be operating, where it might do some damage.
Erm, Dale Eve caught some crosses nicely in the first match, oh and Ryan Lloyd’s back soon. I’m struggling otherwise.
As for Sunday’s match, I just hope everyone on the pitch and around the ground has a thoroughly good time and gets home safely.
There, I hope that’s beige enough for everyone. If there’s anyone left who reads these previews without disliking or being horribly offended by them, happy new year!
COYW