Harriers' disappointing form continued after they surrendered the points from a scrappy match to a Scunthorpe
side that were not much better than the Reds but who took the chances that they were presented with.
After Saturday's man-of-the-match performance Adie Smith kept his place in the side and captain Adam Willis
returned at the expense of Kenny Coleman. The visitors ran out in Harriers' third, silver, strip - the first
farcical event of the evening. The game was scrappy from the start, but quite lively at the same time
which suggested better was to come. In the first ten minutes the visitors had the upper hand, Stuart
Brock parried a long-range shot from Matt Sparrow and just managed to grasp the ball at the second attempt
with Steve Torpey following up and a free kick by Kevin Sharp from the left corner of the penalty area whizzed
just past the far post.
Harriers' best chance of the whole game came after 32 minutes, Robert Betts made a good attack on the right,
his cross was cleared but fell to Danny Williams who played it into the penalty area where an unmarked Andy
Bishop, with plenty of time to decide what to do, headed tamely straight at Sam Russell in the United goal. In
stoppage time at the end of the half Dany Williams had a long range shot turned round the post for a corner
by Russell.
After the break Harriers came out with more purpose and for the first ten minutes had their best spell of the
game. In these early moments half-time substitute Matt Gadsby was influential, two minutes in his pass
through the inside right channel found Bo Henriksen on the edge of the penalty area but his shot on the turn
flew just wide. Ten minutes into the half Gadsby started another move with a pass along the right wing
for Bishop who left Mark Jackson for dead and crossed to the near post where Henriksen met it with a volley
that went just wide.
It was at this stage that the second farcical event of the evening occured when one of the pitch sprinklers
came on showering the spectators in the nearest section of the Reynolds Stand. After a few moments of
indecision referee Andre Marriner decided to take the players off the field but before they could all leave
the water was switched off and they could all return. Before playe could resume, however, the referee
was called over by the fourth offical and words were exchanged with Harriers manager Ian Britton who was then
oredered to watch the rest of the game from the stand.
The interruption knocked Harriers out of their stride and within seconds Scunthorpe had taken the lead, totally
against the run of play, the ball was played long through the middle and with the Harriers defence standing
still waiting for an offside flag Cliff Byrne ran through to head it over the advancing Brock.
On the hour the lively Lloyd Dyer nearly brought Harriers level with a free kick that beat the wall but it
didn't have enough power and Russell was able to field it comfortably. With fifteen minutes to go United
wrapped the game up with a second goal, Sparrow hit a shot from some distance on the right that Brock only
parried when he should have done much better and Steve McLean was on hand to tap in the loose ball. In
the last minutes Harriers had a final chance to get a consolation goal with another free kick, this time it was
Danny Wiliams who blasted it through the wall but Russell was on hand again to save it well.
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