AFC Telford United 0-1 Kidderminster Harriers - Report

The Bucks had two new faces in their match day squad. Free agents Lamine Sherif and Byron Moore, both midfielders, have each signed on deals until the end of the current campaign, and both were on the substitutes bench for this game. Paul Carden resisted the urge to start either, citing a lack of recent matches for both and a subsequent lack of genuine match fitness.

Carden did make some changes, however; Brayden Shaw, Brendon Daniels and Jason Oswell filled the spaces alongside Sherif and Moore on the bench, replaced by assistant manager Carl Baker, Stoke City loanee Patrick Jarrett and Andre Wright, his first start for the club.

The visiting Harriers were playing for the first time since capturing the imagination of the wider public in pushing Premier League side West Ham United to the limit in a live, televised Emirates FA Cup tie. Russ Penn’s team are in the promotion hunt and have games in hand too, so they didn’t lack incentive for this game, despite their deep disappointment a week previously.

The game began in a lively atmosphere, buoyed by over 800 away supporters and a bigger than usual home following, swelling the crowd to over 2,200. Carden felt his side had been lacking in intensity in Tuesday’s home defeat to Southport, but got the reaction he’d have been looking for; the Bucks went determinedly about the task of matching Harriers, stopping them really hitting their stride.

Griffiths’ first moment in the spotlight arrived in the seventh minute. As he went to kick the ball downfield, former Bucks striker Amari Morgan-Smith chased down and blocked the kick, with Griffiths no doubt relieved to see the ball travel just wide of his left post.

The Bucks responded, and a poor first touch from Jarrett at the far post denied him the chance to strike at goal from Ross White’s cross. Baker, 39 years old but still a driving force in midfield, tried to spur his team forwards on a couple of occasions, with Jarrett again on the end of a Baker cross but seeing a Harriers defender take the ball off his toes.

A slip in midfield from Liam Nolan allowed Harriers’ skipper Sam Austin the chance to break forward, and when his path was blocked, his lay-off to top scorer Ashley Hemmings saw Hemmings 20-yard shot deflected over the bar for a corner.

Wright, once a Harriers player before a spell playing in Ireland, was using his physical presence to good effect, and began to cause problems for his marker, Nathan Cameron, forcing Cameron’s defensive partner Matt Preston to concede a corner after Wright used his body to get goal side of Cameron.

A deflected Austin shot on the half-hour mark brought another corner, and from it the visitors went close; Hemmings’ flag-kick appeared to get a touch off the head of a Bucks defender before striking the outside of the near post.

That had been the closest either side came to scoring as the clock ticked towards half-time, but on 44 minutes, Harriers took the lead. A free-kick awarded 35 yards from goal, on the left, was swung into the penalty area; Griffiths came for the ball but didn’t claim it, feeling he’d been impeded, and as the ball dropped over him towards goal, Cameron reacted quickly to score from inside the six-yard box. Even that was disputed, with the Bucks’ feeling Cameron was offside. It mattered not; the goal stood.

The Bucks tried to reply immediately, with Geraldo Bajrami booked for a foul on Baker that gave the hosts a promising position; however, despite Theo Streete doing his best to get onto the end of the resulting free-kick, Harriers kept the door shut.

Harriers had a slender lead, but there was enough in the game for the Bucks to feel that some reward was still attainable. They started the second half positively, Wright putting an effort wide from a Baker cross, whilst at the other end, Griffiths denied Austin when his shot on the run across the Bucks no.1 was stopped by the keeper’s legs, and sharp reflexes.

Griffiths’ opposite number, Luke Simpson, comfortably held Keaton Ward’s low shot from 20 yards, before Griffiths produced two stops in quick succession, parrying a Hemmings shot after the Harrier turned smartly just inside the penalty area, and then pushing aside Alex Penny’s effort when possession was recycled to the full-back.

Carden introduced Moore from the bench after 64 minutes, replacing Jarrett, who had faded, and Moore was soon involved, giving the Bucks a fresh option on their right-hand side.

Two chances then arrived in quick succession. As Carden admitted afterwards, the Bucks got their opportunities through pressure and persistence, forcing errors from the Harriers, and Mace Goodridge’s high-tempo pressing saw him steal possession and drive into the box before putting his shot across the face of goal, beyond Simpson but narrowly wide.

The next chance was even clearer. The Bucks located Baker in behind the Harriers defence on the left of the penalty area, but Baker traded accuracy for power and his fierce shot flashed past Simpson, but also wide of the far post.

Griffiths saved well again as the game entered it’s final 15 minutes, the Bucks adding Oswell and Daniels for Baker and Ward as they sought an equaliser, and on 78 minutes the Bucks keeper made his best save yet.

Geraldo Bajrami picked up possession centrally, 30 yards from goal, and advanced before shooting at goal; the ball took a wicked deflection en route but Griffiths, already diving, was able to alter his body position and turn the ball over his bar. Even Harriers forward Morgan-Smith acknowledged the quality of the save, the Bucks seeing off the resulting corner.

The Bucks threw more into their increasingly desperate attempts to get a goal. Moore popped up at the far post to meet a Daniels free-kick with his head, Harriers clearing the effort from close to Simpson’s goal line.

Harriers tried to kill the game; Morgan-Smith was denied at close range by the excellent Jordan Piggott, following a corner won by Penny’s incisive run into the box, and as the game entered what seemed a rather miserly additional three minutes, the Bucks went for broke.

Griffiths came forward from his penalty area for a corner, getting his head onto the ball before Harriers cleared. He stayed in the attack and as the ball was returned, he won a second header but was penalised for a foul by referee Simeon Lucas. The official drew some criticism from Carden after the game, and Griffiths voiced his displeasure at him too, earning a booking.

Despite throwing what they had at the visitors, the Bucks couldn’t break though, and Harriers recorded a fifth successive clean sheet in the league to claim the victory. Carden’s team had pushed them hard, and had nullified much of the Harriers undoubted quality, but ultimately hadn’t possessed enough quality of their own to really hurt the Worcestershire side.

Referee: Simeon Lucas.

Assistants: Simon Kellis, Jacob Graham.

Attendance: 2,234.

Telford (4-3-3): Griffiths, White, Streete, Bood, Piggott, Nolan, Ward (Oswell 77), Goodridge, Baker (Daniels 77), Wright, Jarrett (Moore 64).

Subs not used: Sherif, Shaw.

Cautioned: Griffiths.

Kidderminster Harriers: Thompson, Penny, Richards, Cameron, Preston, Austin, Carrington (Montrose 70), Morgan-Smith, Hemmings, Sterling (Redmond 84), Bajrami (Lowe 90).

Subs not used: White, Foulkes.

Cautioned: Bajrami.