By KJ
August 28 2003

After a bright start Kidderminster Harriers have lost their last two games. Saturday sees the arrival of unbeaten Oxford United at Aggboro, as Kidder look to bounce back.

HARRIERS COME UNDONE

Firstly apologies for the lack of reports on the Jumpjet Journal in the past week. Well not much goods news to report as Kidder fell to their first two league defeats of the season. So let me give my views on the past two games.

KIDDER 0 BURY 2

I don’t know about you but I was slightly optimistic before this clash with the Shakers. In the first half we didn’t look in much danger until Bury went ahead. From then on it wasn’t pretty as Bury hung on well and we failed to break them down. There were a couple of penalty appeals turned down by a reasonably poor as standard referee. Eventually the Shakers claimed all three points with a second goal two minutes from time and there was no way back. Bury were a reasonable outfit who did us with more of a workmanlike display than a total football performance. Not the best of omens for the Cheltenham game, a team who can only be described as workmanlike at the best of times.

NAM 2 KIDDER 1

Not a pleasant day

Well a terrible day really in Nam and a very poor quality match. If there were any neutral observers or any potential fans of either club at Whaddon Road on Monday then I doubt either club would have attracted them back.

We played reasonably well in the first half but not in an attacking sense. Nam had the best chance courtesy of Sean Flynn who was indebted to Brocky for his fine save. The referee was even worse than the standard poor. To be honest its not just the refs, it’s the rules. The authorities are giving them far too much authority and also too many rules to get players sent off. Why not make certain offences punishable by goals or better goalscoring opportunities. For example, if a player brings down another outside the area in a professional foul situation, give a penalty. If its inside the area, give an open goal penalty. Mr Hedgley was a particularly bad little Hitler of a man, who was intent from the first whistle to draw attention to himself. Flynny was booked early on for a standard foul. He had then made a rod for his own back. Our former player Mark Yates (how is in the League ?) followed him for a much more punishable offence. He later booked Stampsie for hand ball. In the second half, Duff committed a similar offence which was spotted by the linesman. This time no booking. Not that I wanted him to be booked but if he booked Stamps then he had to book Duff. The sending off of Willis was another poor decision really. He claimed that Adam was the last man when he clearly wasn’t. After witnessing such dross performances every week my only hope is that these referees wives get up to no good in their husbands absence. Hopefully with gangs of men.

Anyway back to the action, so after a poor first half, we go and take the lead. Danny fires in another free kick thunderbolt. After this quality strike we looked kind of in control. Not that we were playing well just that Nam weren’t. it wasn’t to be and tow late goals were our undoing. Brocky did save well from Taylor but not long after they’d equalised. A cross come over Brocky went up in a crowd, lost it, and Victory equalised. 2 minutes later Nam scored the winner through their best player Duff, who converted a free kick. Duff is a quality player and is dubbed the Beckham of our division, although he hasn’t quite got the looks of golden balls. So a desperately disappointing day.

Atkins diet Saturday, route one

OXFORD NEXT

So after these two defeats we now take on 2nd place Oxford who are unbeaten in all competitions at Aggborough this Saturday. Oxford are another team who play with a direct style so it doesn’t look good for us. We seem to play well against the more “footballing teams” but struggle with teams like Oxford. Ah well lets hope we can reverse the trend. We will have to play a lot better than we have been doing to get anything. Above all we must play to our strengths and not copy the opposition. Its ok playing copy cat against Ipswich and Mansfield but not Cheltenham or Oxford. Sometimes you wouldn’t mind if we played a bit more direct if it worked but we haven’t got the players for that. So come on lads, we need cheering up.