Harrowby United are defeated by Bourne Town in first home game of the season
United Counties League Division One
Harrowby United 0
Bourne Town 3
Harrowby United’s first home match of the season was in front of a great crowd of 200 on Tuesday night, when they welcomed title favourites Bourne Town to the JRL Stadium.
Bourne have signed some quality players in the summer so the Arrows knew a difficult test awaited them, but it would show the improvement made by manager Jamie McGhee on his new look squad.
It was a near full squad for the Arrows apart from Kemal Yeniberitz who was away.
The game started with both sides feeling each other out, especially in midfield, as both defences were on top with the two goalkeepers not having a lot to worry about.
Midway through the first half, Bourne took the lead when an uncharacteristic mishit back pass by skipper Jack Gurney fell to James Hill-Seekings who played in the prolific Zack Munton and he hit a sweet half volley past Jake Frestle in the Harrowby goal.
For the rest of the half, Harrowby were on top but when Harry Olivant broke free from Dan Wilson, Daniel Swan in the Bourne goal made a great save down low to his right.
Harrowby then had the next chance with Kane Hutchinson-Wilkes thundering a shot against the Bourne post.
It was all Harrowby up to the the half time whistle, with Gurney testing Swan again but he was equal to everything the Arrows could throw at him in the first half.
One nil down, Harrowby could consider themselves a little unfortunate to be a goal down going into half time.
A half time change for the Arrows saw Luke Peberdy replace Josh Clarke.
Harrowby seemed to lose the edge in the second half as Bourne showed why they are title favourites by managing the game well with a well-marshalled defence by Matt Cox and Ben Panting.
Bourne doubled their lead after Will Bird did well and Jake Sansby headed home after the ball ricocheted of the bar.
Bourne were now seeing the game out well and too often in the second half Harrowby were guilty of over hitting passes.
Munton made sure of the points for Bourne with another great finish past Frestle, but he had been allowed to run free across the Harrowby box without a challenge being made.
The 3-0 defeat to Bourne was an eye opener for the Arrows, indicating the levels they need to be playing at for the full 90 minutes, as after a great 45 minutes they could have been leading at half time.
The Arrows now turn their attention to Dunkirk who are the visitors at the JRL Stadium on Saturday.