A look ahead to Saturday’s trip to Eastleigh…
By Matty Paddock - 22/09/2023
Posted 3 years ago
HARRIERS head to Eastleigh in National League action on Saturday looking for a second away victory of the term.
The Reds need to bounce back from a chastening defeat to Gateshead in midweek, while Eastleigh come into it on the back of a 2-2 draw with Oxford City.
Jimmy O’Connor spoke before the tie, saying: “We come in after every game and say ‘where can we be better?’ but we’re a quarter of the way through the season and we’ve learnt a lot about this league in that time.
“There’s no point learning about it if we don’t do something about it as a group, though.
“We go into Saturday against Eastleigh and the good thing on the back of Tuesday night is that we’ve got a chance to put it right straight away.
“We’ll go to Eastleigh who will offer their own challenges as a team who’ve been at the level for a long time.
“We’ve got to have confidence in ourselves and what we do right – do that, try and be better in the other areas and hopefully come away with some points.”
Of Saturday’s hosts, O’Connor added: “They are another side with a lot of experience at the level – threats, we identify them but we identify weaknesses as well and we’ve got to impose ourselves on the opposition.
“They’re a completely different team to Gateshead, the way they play, but they are still a threat with what they do.
“We have to build some momentum and confidence the other way… and hopefully put a run together, but that always starts with the next fixture and that’s Eastleigh.”
Harriers will be without Shane Byrne (knee) and Matt Preston (calf) on Saturday, but the latter is progressing now and has returned to training on the grass – Saturday’s game coming “a little bit too soon.”
Jack Lambert is among the players being assessed following knocks and niggles in the squad in the wake of Tuesday’s game.
Saturday sees a first trip to the Silverlake Stadium for Harriers since 2015, the Reds venturing south looking for a first win at the venue.
In the five meetings between the two sides between 2014 and 2016, the Reds can only count one victory against Eastleigh, an entertaining 3-2 success in our last match-up.
Kick-off on Saturday is at 3:00pm
Away travel remains on sale from Harriers up to and including Friday.
Match tickets can be purchased from Eastleigh’s website.
Don’t forget, all Harriers matches are available on NLTV this season – find out more about where and how you can watch this one.
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