Sandgrounders hit for six by Harriers
KIDDERMINSTER H ....... 6 SOUTHPORT ..................... 0
SATURDAY proved a painful afternoon for everyone connected to Southport as they fell to a 6-0 defeat at the hands of a rampant Kidderminster Harriers side.
It was a meeting of two sides short on confidence, with the Sandgrounders without a win in their previous six games and Harriers still fragile from results and performances in recent weeks – even allowing for the 5-0 win over Curzon, their only win in the previous nine.
Southport actually started quite brightly and twice got in behind the home side defence without posing any real threat.
And it was Ashley Hemmings on 17 minutes who fired his team in front and set the tone for the remainder of the afternoon.
His goal owed much to the sheer brilliance of Matty Stenson who, on his first Harriers start, tied his man in knots before firing an excellent cross low to the far post where Hemmings was on hand to turn it past Cameron Mason.
Stenson actually almost scored himself a minute later, swivelling superbly to meet a volley inside the area from Omari Sterling’s cross, but that effort flew over.
Jack Doyle picked up an injury and was replaced in the 28th minute by Josh Hmami and this seemed to unsettle the side
With half an hour on the clock it was 2-0 when Sterling reached maximum speed to chase down a nudge forward by Hemmings, cutely chipping the ball over Mason and sending it into the back of the net.
The visitors did have their sights of goal. Before the break Cameron blocked superbly to deny Walton a clear sight of goal not long after Penny had done similar to keep out another advance.
Before the hour it was almost 3-0 as Amari Morgan-Smith prowled. He watched down a long delivery into the area and shot, Mason equal to it as he produced a low save. Eight minutes after it was indeed three; Stenson hogging the ball before laying it off into the path of Hemmings who blasted a finish into the far corner, stinging Mason’s fingertips as it flew past him.
Two minutes later, Hemmings might well have had his hat-trick but was thwarted by an alert save from Mason. The custodian was busy again on 77 minutes as Harriers extended their lead further, initially saving Morgan-Smith’s header, but unable to stop the striker turning the ball past him and into the net whilst on the ground.
At that point Southport had been well beaten for a while, but there was still time for Harriers to net two more goals to ensure the win was even more comprehensive. 5-0 arrived on the 87th minute as relentless sub Ethan Freemantle charged down a delayed clearance by Mason before racing past him to ensure the ball ended up in the net.
The sixth goal came six minutes into added time courtesy of the forehead of Cliff Moyo, who’d come on with just nine left of normal time. A fine free-kick delivery saw him rise highest – and by some way – in the area, firing a header into the net to score on his first appearance at Aggborough since an injury in pre-season last July, and just a couple of feet from where it had happened.
Speaking after the game, boss Liam Watsin said it was no time to read the riot act.
“Where we are is pretty simple – if we go over the game, you can say this and that but we’re not going to get anything out of that. It’s clear as anything where we are, we’re in a horrific run, bodies are breaking down left, right and centre but somehow I just have to get a reaction,” he said.
“So there’s no point looking at the game as a whole, looking for excuses, who to blame, ripping into players –all the things you’d normally expect in the aftermath of a game.
“They’ve had a terrific run this season to get where we are, everything is still in our own hands and we’ve got seven games to go, that’s the only positive and the only way I can look at it.
“People will point the finger, they’ll want to blame people – let them. If we win on Tuesday let them blame us again for winning. Blame us when we lose but blame us when we win as well.
“Sometimes players need shouting at but over this bad run, the shouting is all done. They are young, they have to find it within themselves, be brave and a bit honest in terms of getting back to what we are good at.
“I’m not the type who’s going to roll over and play dead, I have to give it my best shot to get them up for the fight as best I can, the lads are going to have to run through knocks because we haven’t got another eight player to rotate through. We’ve got what we’ve got and that’s what we’ve had all season. But we’re here with seven games to go, still fighting and we’ll continue to fight.
“The easiest thing to do is point the finger and blame somone. Blame me – I’m a big lad, I can take it, don’t worry about it.
“I like this squad, I think there’s a load of honesty and a load of good kids. Today we weren’t very good, we made some comical errors. But this game won’t have a bearing on it – the next seven might because we’ve still got it all to play for.
“We’ve got games to play and points to win, so no cowering away or pointing the finger.
“Sometimes in football, when you’ve gone you’ve gone. When you’ve imploded and the season has caught up with you, you’ve gone.
“But I don’t believe we have, I think we have wins in us. Stick together, have a right good go and between now and the end of the season, can we upset a few people? Sure we can. Can we get wins? Sure we can. I’m not giving up and I’ll make sure they (the players) don’t.”