Sorry Harborough Town Fall to Peterborough Northern Star 3-0
20th October 2018
After a rampant display against Kirby Muxloe a fortnight ago, it seemed that Harborough Town had finally found their stride in the league and would be looking to climb the table. However, a disastrous 8-2 defeat in the midweek to Coalville hit home hard, seemingly dissolving any confidence that sparked during the Kirby victory. The fixture against Peterborough was a chance to prove The Bees’ resilience and desire to win. With Peterborough a good 6-points clear of Harborough in the table, this would be a true test to this young Bees side who found themselves without first-choice keeper Glen Giles.
Harborough found themselves struggling from the off, within 5 minutes Peterborough had won their first corner of the day; they utilised a training ground routine, playing it short before a floated ball was delivered, finding a leaping Harry Fitzjonn, who’s header brushed the post on its way wide. A struggling Harborough defence put themselves in trouble as Tony Bartlett’s poor clearance gifted the ball to Jake Jansby on the edge of the box, who curled in a cross – the ball found Josh Rosser beating the normally robust Ben Williams in the air, before his header also found its way wide. Moments later, Callum Traynor this time played his team into trouble with another despicable clearance, this time gifting Lukas Gereltauskas who had time in the box to pull the trigger, but the Harborough defence scrambled managing to get a block in. With one of the only meaningful passages of play for Harborough in the first half, Harry May and Tony Bartlett linked up well down the right, before May found Aaron Preston on the edge of the area. Preston rolled away from his marker well, creating the space for him to fire an effort on goal; unfortunately, much like the performance, it was a weak effort that rolled easily into the hands of Quincy Shorunmu. Around the half-hour mark, Peterborough got their deserved breakthrough; a pin-point cross found the boot of Lukas Gereltauskas on the half-volley, which dipped over Tom Copping before bouncing off the bar and into the back of the net. It remained 1-0 at the half, although Peterborough could have been 2 or more up had they taken some more of the chances that were presented to them by a splintered Harborough defence.
At the restart, it did not take long for Peterborough to assert their dominance in the second half, after just 3 minutes Lukas Gereltauskas headed home his brace. Another poor clearance found its way back into the danger area, Gereltauskas at the back post met the ball with his head and watched it loop over the reaches of Copping and into the far corner. A mere 10 minutes later and the game was put to bed with Peterborough’s 3rd of the day. A low, driven ball in found Josh Rosser in space, who smashed home his goal of the day past Copping with a strong right foot. Towards the closing moments Harborough finally picked up the pace, a strong run from Jordan Lever and smart ball found Preston in the box, he held the ball up well before laying off Dan Forbes, but his effort was fired high and wide. Preston himself took a smart effort on the swivel, which bounced favourable in front of Shoronmu, but his calm hands held the ball well. A final chance was presented in the dying minutes as a corner fell to the feet of Preston in the box, who smashed an effort against the bar and back out, marking the end of any hopes of a Harborough goal.
A poor performance from The Bees underlined by a chaotic defensive effort and disorganized attack. A performance that seemed far off what we saw a fortnight ago during that dazzling display against Kirby Muxloe, one hopes it was merely a speedbump on Harborough’s way to finding consistent strong performances that are desperately needed for this side. Next week The Bees travel to 2nd placed Pinchbeck, who were hammered 6-0 by runaway leaders Daventry today also.
