St@tto's Match Report - Northampton Town v Kidderminster Harriers 21 October 2003

Northampton Town 0(0) v (1)1 Kidderminster Harriers

Football League Division 3 - Sixfields - 21 October 2003

Attendance: 4089

Individual Stats
Northampton	Shots		Fouls		Off.	v	Kidderminster	Shots		Fouls		Off.
	On	Off	For	Ag				On	Off	For	Ag
Glyn Thompson 7	0(5)	0	0	0	0	[1]	Stuart Brock 6	0(3)	0	0	0	0
Chris Willmott 5	0	0	2	1	0	[5/19]	Kenny Coleman 7	0	0	2	0	0
Chris Carruthers 5	0	0	0	2	0	[24/5]	Craig Hinton 7	0	0	1	0	0
Ian Sampson 5	0	0	0	0	0	[14/2]	Adie Smith 6	0	0	0	0	0
Chris Doig 5	0	0	0	0	0	[12/22]	Wayne Hatswell 6	0	0	0	1	0
Paul Trollope 5	0	1	1	1	0	[11/4]	Danny Williams 6	0	0	1	1	0
Josh Low 5	0	0	0	0	0	[10/20]	Graham Ward 6	0	0	0	0	0
Paul Harsley 5	0	0	1	2	0	[18/7]	Dean Bennett 5	1(1)	4	0	2	0
Marc Richards 5	1(1)	1	0	0	1	[9]	John Williams 6	2(2)	2	1	0	1
Martin Smith 6	1(1)	1	1	0	1	[19/8]	JJ Melligan 6	2(2)	3	3	1	2
Chris Hargreaves 5	0	0	0	2	0	[20/14]	Sean Parrish 5	1	0	0	1	0
Luke Chambers						[2/6]	Matt Gadsby
Lawrie Dudfield 5	0	0	1	0	0	[16/11]	Sam Shilton 5	0	0	0	0	0
Derek Asamoah 5	0	0	0	0	0	[25/16]	Lee Ayres
Richard Walker 6	2(1, w)	0	0	0	1	[28/17]	Matt Lewis
Oliver Burgess						[30/15]	John Danby

Team Stats
	Fouls Conceded	Offside	Corners	Shots On	Shots off
Northampton	8	3	7	4	3
Kidderminster	6	3	2	6	9

GOALS
Northampton	Kidderminster
	22	Sean Parrish	Ran in behind the defence to receive Melligans pass and slotted his shot past the keeper into the far corner of the net.

FORMATIONS

Northampton
		Thompson
Willmott	Sampson		Doig	Carruthers

Low	Harsley		Trollope	Hargreaves

	Smith		Richards

Kidderminster
		Brock
Coleman	Smith		Hatswell	Hinton

Ward	Bennett		D. Williams	Parrish
		Melligan
		J. Williams

SUBSTITUTIONS
Northampton				Kidderminster
46	Walker	Richards	Walker to striker.	69	Shilton	Parrish	Shilton to left midfield.
62	Dudfield	Hargreaves	Dudfield to striker, Smith to left midfield.
86	Asamoah	Sampson	Asamoah to attacking midfield, Doig to central defender. Now 3-4-1-2.

BOOKINGS
Northampton		Kidderminster
Harsley 54 Foul Hargreaves 59 Foul		Parrish 22 Unsporting behaviour Bennett 51 Foul Melligan 54 Unsporting Behaviour Hatswell 83 Foul
Referee: G. Salisbury

Match Report by St@tto

Harriers recorded their second win in four games giving Jan Molby the perfect start to his second spell in charge of the team. Sean Parrish returned to haunt his former club scoring the only goal of the game, his first of the season, midway through the first half.

Molby decided to stick with the team that finished the game at Swansea on Saturday after they had given such a good performance and they responded with another solid game, showing more of the promise that was seen in pre-season. Harriers dominated possession in the first half and couldhave taken the lead after just six minutes when a good passing move ended with John Williams testing Glyn Thompson in the home goal with a shot on the turn from 25 yards.

The home team did have their own good moments, and just a minute later they ripped through the Harriers defence with a move that ended with Martin Smith having a shot saved by Stuart Brock and Marc Richards firing the rebound over the bar. At the other end John Williams had another good chance when a JJ Melligan cross found him at the far post but he was stretching to reach it and couldn't get a good contact with his head and it went wide.

Harriers took the lead midway through the half, the lively Melligan, revelling in free role between midfield and attack, threaded the ball through the home defence and Parrish arrived late to receive it and roll it beyond Thompson into the far corner. As the half wore on Harriers began to dominate more and more and The Cobblers were kept pressed back in their own half, before the break Harriers could have increased their advantage considerably. Dean Bennett began the move that lead to the next good chance, bringing the ball out of defence and well into the Northampton half before picking out Graham Ward on the right, his cross to the far post found John Williams in space but he took too long in controlling the ball and Thompson was able to smother his shot. Melligan had two chances before the interval: a long range shot that went wide and one from inside the penalty area that he snatched at and fired over the bar.

Early in the second half Melligan was lucky to stay on the field, he was on the receiving end of a crunching challenge from Paul Harsley which earned the Northampton man a yellow card but Melligan reacted to the challenge by jumping up and pushing his attacker and was lucky to only get a yellow card himself.

The second period saw Northampton show more resolve but still Harriers were on top, just after the hour mark a slick passing move ended with Ward and Bennett exchanging passes on the edge of the penalty area with the latter forcing Thompson into a save. The home team didn't really clear the danger properly and Harriers were soon in the danger area again with Melligan shooting over. Shortly afterwards Northampton had their best chance of the game, Josh Low attacked on the right and his low cross found substitute Richard Walker at the near post who steered the ball past Brock and against the far post.

In the closing minutes as Northampton became more and more frantic in their efforts to save the game Smith hit a free kick against the wall and the loose ball fell to Low who flashed a shot across the face of goal. At the death the home side forced a series of corners, one of which reached an unmarked Walker at the far post but Brock made a good save to beat his shot out for another corner, Harriers cleared this one properly and were able to see out stoppage time to pick up their first away win since August.