A goal two minutes into stoppage time condemned Harriers to their fourth home defeat of the season after they
had come from behind to equalise and looked set to take an unlikely point.
Young striker Matt Lewis, recalled from his loan spell at Hinckley United yesterday, was brought in to replace
Andy Bishop and make his first start in the Football League. It was Lewis who almost got the game off
to an explosive start when he raced onto a through ball and was only denied by the quick reactions of Darryl
Flahaven who raced out to clear with only ten seconds on the clock. Harriers made a lively start to the
game with Graham Ward in particular seeing a lot of the ball in the early exchanges. After ten minutes
Bo Henriksen and JJ Melligan combined on the right with the latter getting into the penalty area and receiving
the ball at the near post, after a good turn he got a shot off but it was blocked by Mark Warren.
Sleepy defending by Harriers almost saw them fall behind on 27 minutes, a free kick was not cleared and the
ball fell to Jay Smith who steered an overhead kick just wide. A minute later Leon Constantine had the
ball in the net but his goal was disallowed by referee Andy Hall for a push on Adam Willis. The Shrimpers
took the lead a minute before half time, Mark Gower rolled a free-kick into the path of Warren who blasted a
25-yard shot past the wall and into the space that Stuart Brock wasn't covering.
Harriers were slow to get going after the break, two minutes into the second half the home defence went missing
when Jay Smith broke through on the left; his square pass found Constantine unmarked but he shot wide from
ten yards out. Ten minutes later Harriers were awarded a free-kick in the inside right channel, Scott
Stamps took it and fired it over the crossbar rather than try to pick out a teammate at the far post.
Another ten minutes passed and Harriers came close again, Melligan's free kick from the right fell into the
danger area but just as Adie Smith was about to turn it into the net the visiting defence cleared the ball
to safety. Harriers were struggling to find any rhythm and were lacking any cutting edge in attack and
only Melligan was offering any creativity from midfield. Lewis was replaced by John Williams just before
the hour mark, Henriksen had limped out of the game at half-time to be replaced by Dean Bennett leaving Harriers
with a very blunt attack.
Harriers equalised out of the blue with six minutes remaining, Danny Williams found Sam Shilton on the left,
his cross almost deceived Flahaven in the Southend goal but the keeper managed to tip it away; Melligan was
arriving late at the far post, however, and his first shot was blocked but he carried on to force the rebound
in from close range. With three minutes left The Reds almost snatched an unlikely win, a Danny Williams
free kick beat the wall but was pushed away for a corner by Flahaven. The game seemed to be heading for
a draw when two minutes into stoppage time the home team shot themselves in the foot, the ball was crossed
from the left, Brock remained rooted to the spot as it flew by him, Stamps only got half a head on it and it
dropped back into the six yard box where Matt Gadsby was too slow to close down substitute Tes Bramble who
hooked it in to give United their first away win of the season and their first ever win at Aggborough. |
