You've got to be KIDDing - key talking points

Elliott's late, late leveller rescues a point

Talk about a grandstand finish, sprinkled with some controversy. Danny Elliott’s late, late equaliser in the 100th minute rescued a point for the Silkmen away at Kidderminster, which caused quite a stir amongst the Harriers’ faithful. There are a LOT of key talking points to debate, so lets get straight to them.

Where did all the injury time come from, and was it justified?

Referee Jonathan Chadwick signalled a ‘minimum of 8 minutes of injury time’ just before the 90th minute mark, so why did we end up playing over 10 minutes at the death?

Well, there were no less than NINE enforced delays in the second half, comprising the following:

• Injury to Kidderminster defender Penny - delay 130 seconds

• Goal Kidderminster Spokes - delay 65 seconds until the restart

• Injury to Penny again, he received treatment but couldn’t continue and was substituted for Tunnicliffe - total delay 115 seconds

• Injury to Kidderminster wing-back Walker - delay 80 seconds

• Substitution: Isaac Buckley-Ricketts replaced Luis Lacey - delay 40 seconds

• Injury to Kidderminster ‘keeper Dibble, while he was receiving treatment Kidderminster substituted Spokes for Clarke - total delay 100 seconds

• Substitution Kidderminster - Thompson replaced Walker - delay 35 seconds

• Substitution: Carlos Dos Santos replaced Sean Etaluku - delay 30 seconds

• In stoppage time Paul Dawson receives treatment and is withdrawn to be replaced by sub Justin Johnson - total delay 75 seconds

Total delays: 670 seconds / 60 = 11.16 minutes. Elliott scored in the 100th minute, so based on my maths (and yes I’ve added up the seconds based on watching back the DAZN footage), the referee was correct in allowing the game to continue for as long as he did.

Kidderminster supporters’ anger stems from the fourth official’s ‘minimum of 8 minutes of added time’ call. Normally, but not exclusively, the ref will blow on or just after whatever injury time minute is announced. In yesterday’s example, Mr Chadwick allowed an additional two-and-a-half minutes of play prior to Elliott scoring. Given Dawson went off and Johnson came on, as highlighted above the official was within his rights to add another 75 seconds on the clock.

And as also highlighted above, the total number of second half stoppages accumulated over 11 minutes of delay, the majority of which were down to Kidderminster themselves! In conclusion, whilst conceding a late equaliser in the 100th minute may have been a bitter pill to swallow for the natives, Macclesfield were not ‘lucky’, nor were the officials ‘corrupt’.

Was Isaac Buckley-Ricketts’ ‘goal’ rightfully disallowed?

NO. IBR’s goal was chalked off because Luke Duffy was adjudged to have ran the ball out of touch in the build-up as he skipped past a couple of Kiddy defenders. Having watched the footage back, the ball DID NOT go out of play. Duffy advanced towards the area and squared it to IBR who fired in.

Rightly or wrongly, the referee did blow his whistle early based on the assistant referee flagging to alert him that the ball had supposedly gone out. The Kidderminster defenders momentarily stopped just as Duffy crossed. The home side may argue that they would have thwarted the danger had play been allowed to legitimately continue. However, in my opinion, IBR had stolen a march on Kidderminster’s backline and no defender would have been able to make a covering tackle to prevent him from scoring had the action been allowed to continue.

Should Kidderminster have had a penalty in the first half?

YES, in my opinion. A poor clearance from Dawson gave the ball to Kidderminster’s right wing-back Foulkes. He went to take on Duffy who appeared to clip him. Foulkes went down in the box but the referee said no penalty. Having watched the footage back, I don’t think Duffy got anything on the ball, he misstimed his tackle and brought Foulkes down, allbeit with minimal contact but, for me, a foul was committed and Kiddy should have been awarded a penalty. In fairness to Foulkes and the Harriers’ players, they didn’t make a meal out of it or continue their protests to the referee. But that doesn’t mean that they were not deserving of a spot kick.

Was a draw a fair result?

On balance, yes. Overall, it was a game of few chances. Kidderminster had a good ten minute spell prior to half time when Macclesfield looked ragged. We began the second half in a similar vein and fell behind. But for the last 20 minutes plus stoppage time, the Silkmen were in the ascendancy as Kidderminster elected to soak up the pressure in an attempt to preserve their slender lead.

Macc had 52% possession and more shots (7 to Kidderminster’s 6). And arguably we went closest to scoring in the first half from James Edmondson’s free-kick and D’Mani Mellor’s sidefoot finish which went wide in first-half stoppage time. When watching back the game on DAZN, D’Mani’s chance was much better than I recalled at the time.

Player ratings

Dearnley 6.5 - only one save of note to make, a 25-yard effort from Walker in the first half which he palmed away. Max had no chance on the goal. He did cause a couple of scares though - dropping the ball when Kiddy launched a long throw into our box in the second minute which Dawson hacked away, and spilling a cross under the pressure in the second half which again the skipper came to the rescue to avert the danger.

Fensome 7.5 - won lots of aerial duels and made a priceless header away in the second half to divert a peach of a cross out for a corner as Kidderminster players were queuing up at the back post.

Dawson 6.5 - played through the pain barrier once more, this time in central defence due to the absence of Josef Yarney (no reason has been given why) and Rollin Menayese’s suspension. This was a pretty sloppy afternoon by Daws’ high standards though. He gave the ball away on numerous occasions, almost costing us a goal in the first half when Foulkes collected his poor square pass and drilled just wide. The skipper did come to Max Dearnley’s rescue on a couple of occasions, but it’s clear that he desperately needs an (hernia) op and a rest to recuperate. Although we will miss his crunching tackles, as highlighted when he (fairly) cleaned out Kidderminster’s Walker with a crunching challenge in the second half!

Heathcote 8 - our best defender and he got the vital assist for the equaliser, helping the ball into Elliott’s path when pushed upfront late on. Sam’s defending was really impressive though. He was calm and positive in possession when bringing the ball out of defence, and assured at the back up against the physical presence of Kidderminster’s veteran striker Morgan-Smith. Heathcote deserves to keep the shirt now.

Lacey 7.5 - replaced by IBR in the 67th minute but this was a much improved defensive display from Luis. Whipped in some excellent balls down the left channel into the path of Duffy and Elliott in the first half, and almost made a vital covering interception to prevent the dangerous Foulkes from getting through on goal. Did momentarily lose Spokes following a long ball into our box, but Dearnley was quickly off his line to pounce on the ball.

Edmondson 7.5 - GREAT to have the youngster back, and it’s like he’d never been away. Economical in possession and always tried to play forwards. Unlucky not to see his free-kick sneak in after 8 minutes. Thought Edmondson really drove us forward with purpose as we chased an equaliser, notably upping the tempo and getting the ball out wide to Duffy and Mellor to run at Kidderminster’s defenders.

Kay 7 - promising debut and he put an excellent shift in. Thought he became more influential as the game wore on, and like Edmondson, was key to us pushing the home side back in the latter stages. Kay’s not necessarily quick (in terms of his pace) but he PLAYS quick, if that makes sense? By that, I mean he moves the ball quickly and he’s very mobile in his movement in and out of possession. His mark would have been higher had he not fallen asleep in the build-up to Kidderminster’s goal. He switched off in allowing Walker to advance down the left to find substitute Devine, who crossed for Spokes to (rather fortuitously) hit his shot into the ground to give the Harriers the lead.

Etaluku 6.5 - a quieter afternoon for him yesterday after his impressive form of late. Left a defender for dead in winning a free-kick right on the edge of the box which led to Edmondson’s free-kick opportunity in the first half. Did produce an excellent cut back to Mellor right at the end of the first half which on another day D’Mani may have converted.

Mellor 6 - D’Mani’s had a good start to the season but wasn’t at the races yesterday. Was guilty of turning the ball over in the first half as nothing went right for him, and may have done better in first-half stoppage time when getting to Etaluku’s cross ahead of the defender but couldn’t divert the ball goalwards from close range. Did have one enterprising run and cross after the break which almost created a headed opportunity for Elliott, but his centre was a fraction too high.

Duffy 7 - had a challenging afternoon up against Kidderminster’s right wing-back Joe Foulkes and I think he was fortunate not to concede a penalty when clipping Foulkes’ heels in the box. He was also guilty of losing Reynolds who lobbed over in the second half when deceived by a crossfield ball. In Duffs defence, he had just been switched to an unfamiliar left wing-back position when John Rooney momentarily switched to playing three at the back.

Duffy did produce two moments of notable quality though. His brilliant defence splitting pass sent Etaluku on his way in first-half injury time, leading to Sean’s cross and chance for Mellor. And he could, and maybe should have had an assist, when jinking into the box and squaring for Buckley-Ricketts to score, only for the goal to be disallowed because the assistant ref adjudged that Duffy had taken the ball out of play by the touchline.

Elliott 7 - kept his composure to score a vital equaliser to bag his fourth of the season, showing fantastic goalscoring quality under pressure. Apart from that, Danny looked laboured, and possibly like D’Mani, would benefit from a rest if Rooney can shuffle his striking options for our FA Cup qualifier at the weekend. Elliott got into some good positions but didn’t make the most of them, as evidenced when he robbed Penny in possession early on but screwed his shot well wide.