Alfreton Town welcome the Harriers to the Impact Stadium on Friday night, in a match where Town will try to leapfrog the Worcestershire side into the top half of the table.
The National League North fixture will be Alfreton’s first match at the Impact since the 0-0 draw to Bradford Park Avenue on November the 12th.
The Reds followed this up with two disappointing away defeats at Darlington in the FA Trophy and Fylde in the league, so Billy Heath’s men will be hoping to put an end to this current blip in form on Friday night under the lights.
The two sides are neck and neck in the league, as Alfreton currently sit in 13th position in the table on 25 points from 19 games, while the Harriers occupy 12th with 27 points acquired from 20 games.
The game kicks off at 7:45pm, and the main talking point on Town fans’ lips will be the eagerly anticipated home return of Spanish winger, Yusifu Ceesay.
Ceesay became something of a fan favourite at the Impact during his spell in the 2021/22 campaign, but he left to join this weekend’s opponents, Kidderminster, at the beginning of the season.
The Barcelona-born attacker has played 15 times for the Harriers this season and scored two goals, but he will now be facing up against his former teammates. His permanent move back to Derbyshire was confirmed last Friday.
The Opposition Lowdown
Kidderminster, who are also nicknamed the Reds, come into this match on a poor run of form with five losses in their last six league games.
The only win of that period was a 2-1 victory away at Telford where they came from behind to win, thanks to goals from Zak Brown and Ethan Freemantle in the last ten minutes of the game.
The Harriers also defeated St Albans City in an FA Trophy second round tie during this spell, thanks to another late strike from Amari Morgan-Smith.
Kidderminster Harriers were formed in 1886 and became one of the founder members of the Birmingham and District League in 1889. They are the only football club from Worcestershire ever to play in the English Football League.
They play their home matches at Aggborough Stadium, a ground which was built in the May of 1890 and seats 7,000.
Their manager is former Burton and Cheltenham midfielder Russell Penn. Penn had two spells at Aggborough as a player and was appointed as caretaker manager for two games in November 2019.
He became assistant manager when he was replaced by James Shan, however, when Shan left for Solihull Moors, the former England C Player of the Year took the reins.
Penn was appointed as manager midway through the 2019/20 season but could only lead Kiddy to a 16th place finish that campaign. Performances improved significantly in the following two seasons though, and they ended up finishing in the play-off positions in both years.
Penn’s side also put in an impressive performance at home to Premier League outfit West Ham United in February of last season. it took the Europa League semi-finalists an injury time equaliser from England regular Declan Rice, and another injury time goal in extra time from fellow England international Jarrod Bowen, to beat the Harriers in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Harriers fans were anticipating a play-off push again this campaign, so will be hoping that their side can start quickly picking up results to help them climb the table.
The Star Man
22-year-old striker Ethan Freemantle has been a shining light for Kiddy this season, scoring seven in all competitions so far this campaign.
Freemantle has 14 goals and seven assists in 41 total appearances for the Harriers, and he has impressively led the line since his move from Walsall in January 2020.
His pace, work rate and eye for goal are sure to make him a handful for the Alfreton Town defenders.
Team News
No new injury news for Alfreton. The Reds should hopefully have a full squad to choose from as they prepare for Friday’s game.
Yusifu Ceesay came straight in for the match away at Fylde last weekend and is expected to retain his place, while Milan Butterfield was handed his first start of the season last time out, and he may reprise his midfield role.
Young midfielder Bailey Conway made his Reds debut off the bench at Fylde and he is another expected inclusion to Friday night’s match day squad.
Alex Penny and Nat Knight-Percival are expected to still be side-lined for the visitors; however new signings Tom Billson, Reiss McNally, Paddy McLaughlin and Joe Leesley will likely feature. Three out of the four made their home debuts in the 1-0 loss to Gloucester last weekend.
Last Time Out
Matt Rhead scored the only goal of the game in Alfreton’s last outing against Kidderminster, as the Reds ran out 1-0 winners at the Aggborough Stadium on the 5th of April 2022. Alfreton fans will be hoping for a similar result this time out.
Tickets for the game can be purchased on the Alfreton Town FC website.
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