Harriers 3, Alfreton 1

SOMETIMES winning ugly is a beautiful thing.

The most important fact about seeing off dogged ten-man Alfreton on Saturday was the three points as Harriers made it five wins in a row.

This was a day when the result was far more important than the performance as Steve Burr’s side followed up their huge win at Forest Green Rovers sucessfully.

Alfreton are scrapping near the bottom of the Blue Square Bet Premier and they made life uncomfortable for the hosts, despite having defender Leigh Franks drafted into goal and Theo Streete sent off.

But while the Derbyshire outfit edged a bad-tempered second half, Harriers had done enough to win by the break.

Amari Morgan-Smith had opened the scoring 55 seconds after the kick-off with his first Harriers effort.

He showed good skill to sidestep Darren Kempson and then coolly slotted a shot beyond keeper Phil Barnes.

It was a surprise when Nicky Law’s troops levelled against the run of play as Harriers had been camped in the away side’s half.

It came from a rare error by Josh Gowling, when he slipped on the pitch and mis-placed a pass to Dan Bradley, who drove down the right and crossed and allowed the unmarked Ben Tomlinson to head in a leveller in the 29th minute.

Gowling atoned for his error in the 38th minute, when he was given too much time and space to meet Kyle Storer’s free-kick and power a header into the back of the net.

In-form striker Anthony Malbon then grabbed his fifth goal in four games, volleying home at the far post after injured keeper Phil Barnes, who was struggling with strapping on his thigh all game, failed to cut out Marvin Johnson’s cross.

In terms of goal action, that was as good as it was going to get as Alfreton pushed the home team back without truly testing keeper Danny Lewis.

At the other end, defender-cum-keeper Franks, who replaced Barnes, made two fine stops, denying Malbon from point blank range and getting down to a low effort by winger Martin Devaney, who made his debut as a substitute.

Alfreton were reduced to ten men in the 74th minute when Streete was shown a straight red card for retaliating to a foul by Gowling, who was also shown a yellow card. Afterwards, assistant boss Gary Whild praised the efforts of Morgan-Smith.

It was later revealed the on-loan Macclesfield man had complained about being racially abused by an away supporter. The incident is being investigated by West Mercia Police.

“Amari showed a bit of quality with a cool finish and I think because of his displays since he’s been with us he’s been due a goal,” said Whild.

He added: “We knew what to expect, Alfreton are still looking for a couple of points to make sure they stay in this division.

“They were set-up to be big and strong and make it difficult for us and that’s what it was.”

Harriers: Lewis 7, Demetriou 6, STORER 9, Vincent 7 (Pearson, 80), Malbon 7, Johnson 7 (Devaney, 73), Jackman 7, Shakes 7, Morgan-Smith 7 (Blissett, 58), Dunkley 7, Gowling 7. Subs: Williams, N Vaughan. Alfreton: Barnes (Arnold, 46), Franks, Franklin, Quinn, Kempson, Law, Bradley, Streete, Meadows, Clayton (Boden, 70), Tomlinson (Soares, 83). Subs: Worsfold, Hewitt. Referee: Chris Cavanagh (Lancashire). Attendance: 2,209 (87)