Harriers 2 Swansea 0

1st win this year
By KJ
February 23 2004

Both Harriers & Swansea were looking for their 1st wins of the year today. It was Harriers who emerged victorious with goals from Ian Foster and Jesper Christiansen as Kiddy enjoyed a bit of luck for a change. Today also saw Aggboro honour Wales & Swans legend John Charles with a minutes silence.

Harriers win at last (brief report)

Harriers claimed their 1st win of 2004 with a deserved victory over Swansea City. Harriers boss Jan Molby went with an attacking 4-3-3 formation against his former club, with Graham Ward missing through injury. At the start of proceedings a minutes silence was observed for Wales and Swansea legend John Charles, who sadly passed away recently.

To be honest I didn’t see much of the 1st half but form what I saw and what people told me there was little incident. Both sides were looking for their first win of 2004 and the sides cancelled each other out. Into the 2nd half and Harriers started to step up a gear. Scott Rickards having a good chance to give Kidder the lead from a Foster cross but he trod on the ball and rolled into the hands of Swans keeper Freestone. Then skipper Wayne Hatswell, who was having a sterling game keeping out Swans danger man Lee Trundle, headed over from a corner when perhaps he could have done better.

Harriers took the lead just before the hour and they enjoyed a rare but of luck. A ball played down the left was heading back to Freestone in the Swans goal with Ian Foster bearing down on him. The keeper somehow failed to collect the ball properly and the persistent Foster managed to drag the ball clear of him and on to the open goal, before slotting home nicely. Fozzie then enjoyed the adulation of the home end as Harriers finally got a goal after 3 blank games. the worry was now that Swansea would come back into it. however Kidder moved further ahead on 66 mins when Jesper Christiansen netted his 1st goal for Harriers. Big Jesper had an impressive game and his bullet header from a Rickards cross was reward for a fine display. From then on Swansea tried to get back into the game but the whole team defended well and had a few opportunities on the break. There was one hairy moment when Harriers keeper Brock had a quick game of keepy uppy before finally clearing it but the Harriers held out for a welcome 3 points.

So a win at last and now we just need to concentrate on getting 5 more wins or so and we should be safe. Today the players dug in and deserved the win. Brocky did well and handled the crosses well. The whole back line worked well, with Hinton and Hatswell snuffing out the threat of Trundle. The midfield was impressive today with all three putting in energetic performances, with Keates and Murray looking like very good signings and Bennett had a good game. Up front, Jesper, who was sponsors man of the match had a very good game, capped off by his 1st goal for us. Some of the big Dane’s lay offs were very impressive and hopefully he can move on now he has broken his duck. The other front runners, Rickards and Foster did well with their pace causing problems and had an assist and a goal respectively. Lets hope the lads can take this on to the Donny match next Friday when we will take on the new leaders.

Todays Ref

Not as bad as recent weeks and no real complaints. Did book Stamps in the 1st half for a late challenge. Then failed to book 2 Swansea players for identical fouls on Keates and Brock. Still nowhere near the standard required but then again, is there anyone out there?

No complaints though, and a bit of luck at last with the opening goal. Just down to an error by the keeper, which in my book is better than a bad decision by a referee.