5 Things: Tamworth

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It’s Harriers v Tamworth at Aggborough on Saturday, and we’ve got a packed Five Things for you to consider ahead of the clash.

The Lambs are heading our way in need of serious points in their battle against relegation, while the reds are still keen to secure more points for a push into the play-offs.

Meetings between the two have been plentiful over the years and the number of players to have worn both shirts is freighting. All told, here are Five Things to think of going into the weekend:

BOB, BRADLEY AND MANY MORE…

To say a handful of players have featured for both Harriers and the Lambs would be a grotesque understatement. The current Tamworth flock includes the likes of Darryl Knights, Aman Verma, Luke Jones, Tom Shaw and Dior Angus – all of whom have represented the men from Aggborough down the years. Likewise, Dan Bradley is a former Lambs player, as are ex-Harriers Gareth Sheldon, Michael Briscoe, Lloyd Kerry, Gavin Hurren, Bob Taylor, Simon Brown, Lee Fowler, Scott Bevan, Aaron Farrell, Ross Atkins, Lee Ayres, Duane Courtney, Richard Peniket, Lee Hendrie, Kyle Storer, Gary Birch, Joe Clarke, Iyseden Christie and Matthew Barnes-Homer – and many, many others!

STAND OR FOLD

Tamworth are fighting for National League North survival and come to Aggborough determined to pick up three points for the cause. There’s no doubt they’re keen to give the reds a really tough day at the office, with defender Joel Kettle telling their official website: ““We can’t keep putting things down to bad luck. It’s complacency, it’s individual mistakes. This is the business end of the season. It’s gone beyond the stage now where you can say, we’ll perform next week, or the one after.

“We need everyone to realise the situation we are in and carve out the results we need. We either stand up and be counted or we fold. It’s definitely not what I want to do and I know the manager doesn’t. We need to rally and go again. We can’t throw in the towel. There are nine points at stake and we have to make sure we do our best to bring things home. We have to be as positive as we can now and go to Kidderminster and get a win.”

CHAMPIONS OF THE NORTH

Tamworth’s pedigree as a non-league club is unquestioned – even just in recent times thanks to a fruitful period in the Southern League at the turn of the millennium. They spent four seasons in what is now the National League before dropping to what we now know as the National League North in 2007. After a season of consolation, they pushed on once more and, thanks to the goal scoring exploits of Sheldon, they clinched the North title in 2009 by winning more than half of their league matches that season. They returned to this current tier of non-league four years ago.

WE MEET AGAIN

It should come as no surprise given the endless list of players to have featured for both Harriers and Tamworth over the years that the sides have had cause to collide plenty of times in the past. Near Christmas 1945, Harriers and Tamworth first met at Aggborough in the Birmingham Combination League and won 3-2 – the first in a sequence of close to 80 matches in the decades that follows. Throughout the 1960s and early 70s the Wassall brothers were typically prolific for Harriers, while a free-scoring generation of Harriers teams in the last decade or so have ensured there has been just two goalless games between the two in the last 24.

FIRST BLOOD TO THE LAMBS

In terms of the most immediate Harriers v Tamworth affair, it’s our visitors on Saturday who hold the momentum. The Lambs hosted John Eustace’s men back in September, and goals from Knights and Bradley Reid had them two goals to the good until Joe Ironside’s 80th minute goal reduced the arrears. Try as they might, Harriers could not find a way back to level the tie, Andre Brown forcing a superb save from the goalkeeper in the dying moments.

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