Harwich unlucky to lose but must do better

Another indifferent performance away from home saw the Shrimpers return pointless from their Friday night 140 mile round trip to the home of Aveley F.C. where two defenesive errors cost them dear and gave May & Baker all 3 points with a fortunate victory. Unavailablity and injuries forced changes in the Harwich line up from their encouraging midweek victory over Coggeshall United. Play was even as Harwich took time to adjust to the 4G surface. A poor clearance by goalkeeper Sam Felgate but Jake Kioussis in all sorts of trouble and a home player seized possession to put in a low cross followed by a simple tap in. Harwich did not really look like scoring until Kevin Coyle put a home defender under pressure and his under hit back pass to the keeper saw Coyle nip in, round the keeper and shoot the equaliser. The second half did not start well for Harwich as five minutes after the restart they fell behind again with the very tall home centre forward heading goalwards and although Felgate did well to parry the ball under the bar his defence did not react and the home attack followed up to net. Harwich did respond and for the rest of the match had the best of exchanges and were unlucky not to have scoring success. The Shrimpers hit the post and also had a certain goal thwarted by a brilliant diving header on the goaline. Post match analysis would probalbly agree that Harwich did not desrve to lose but May & Baker were in reality an average looking outfit and two very bad defensive mistakers gave the home side 3 well celebrated points. If Harwich want promotion they have got to improve especially away from home and eliminate costly mistakes.

Report by Tony Armstrong