By KJ
August 14 2003

Kidderminster Harriers again failed to get past the 1st round of the League Cup.No disgrace though as Harriers battled for 120 minutes against the Tractor Boys.

IPSWICH 1 HARRIERS 0 (AET) A BRIEF REPORT

Harriers finally bowed out of the Carling Cup, for the fourth consecutive year, but not without a tremendous fight against 1st division Ipswich. Harriers played their hearts out and only lost to an extra time winner by Bowditch, which was probably the only error of the evening.

Harriers started without Bo Henriksen, who was out with an Achilles injury and Andy Bishop, who was refused permission to play by Walsall. This meant debuts for Graham Ward and John Williams in a 4-5-1 formation. With this knowledge I must confess to expecting a mauling. However Harriers started quite well, and John Williams’s effort form an acute angle forced an early save from Ipswich keeper Kelvin Davies. As you would expect The Tractor Boys had plenty of chances but Brock and the defence stood firm, with Adam Willis making one particularly good last ditch clearance. The Portman Rd scoreboard showed how much time was left and I did keep looking at it, thinking, crikey we’ve held them so far. Just before half time, the stand safety lights come on, and when they did, Kiddy were still in it. In fact we could have been a goal up after John Williams broke clear only to shoot wide with only the keeper to beat. Half Time 0-0.

At half time, Ipswich made two changes, with Captain Magilton going off. The game pretty much followed the same pattern as Ipswich enjoyed the better of the chances. Again Brock was equal to all that came at him and coupled with some poor finishing by Town Harriers goal lived a charmed life. Kidder had their chances too, Ward, who was impressive all night, tried a couple of long range efforts. Dean Bennett came the closest though, his effort from inside the area was only just turned around the post by Davies. Ipswich did miss some sitters as well, as the scoreboard clock kept clicking away, 30, 20, 10 minutes to go, again I glanced at it. The lights come on again and we were still in it. The only problem I could see at this stage was where would a goal from us come from? John Williams was replaced by Matt Lewis, who did OK but didn’t really threaten goal wise. Sean Parrish also came on for the injured Sam Shilton. With so many missed chances by Ipswich, could this be our night ? Full time 0-0.

Brocky, impressive.

My one thought now was, we have basically drawn this match. It’s a pity we couldn’t now have a replay. Rules are rules though, so off we went into extra time. Within seconds Ipswich scored what turned out to be the winner. A mix up in defence lead to Dean Bowditch netted a soft goal. From then on it was a mountain to climb. Danny Williams went off to be replaced by Adie Smith and that really didn’t help matters, with all respect to Adie, who is a defender. Ipswich again had chances to put the game beyond doubt, but Brocky continued making some superb saves. Then came the bizarre incident, the linesman, had cramp and was replaced after a long delay. Maybe this could add on some ridiculous amount of stoppage time, in the end though it was only 3 minutes and Harriers failed to get the equaliser and force a penalty shoot out. Result Ipswich 1 Harriers 0.

So a great display by Kidder. Yes Ipswich were the better team and if both teams were at the same level then you would say Ipswich battered us. But we are one of, if not, THE, smallest club in the league, and the lads done us proud tonight. We tried to play football against a good side and in the end we were very narrowly beaten. Add to this the absence of Bo and Bish, then it makes it even better. I wonder what we could have done with either of those in last night?

Man of the match ? no one let us down and they all played their part. It must again go to Stuart Brock though, who was outstanding.

Jumpjet poll

we asked if Kiddie could beat Ipswich and 3 voted for maybe, with one, probably a Tractor Boy(Aston!) saying no.In a way, we all all correct, in fact, we did hold them to a draw!