Harborough are ready for an historic day

Harborough Town will play their first-ever game at Step 4 as their Northern Premier League Midlands campaign gets under way with a home clash against one of the teams fancied to gain promotion this season Halesowen Town.

The Bees will go into the historic game having booked a place in the preliminary round of the Emirates FA Cup as they beat Boston Town 3-0 in an extra preliminary round replay on Tuesday night having drawn 0-0 away from home in the first tie on Saturday.

James Ireland scored twice in the second half to add to Ben Williams’ goal earlier on but captain Williams then had to be withdrawn with an injury that is set to rule him out this weekend.

Boss Mitch Austin was delighted with his team’s second-half display on Tuesday and is now looking forward to the challenge of taking on Halesowen.

“I was very pleased with the second-half performance,” Austin said.

“It was the Harborough of old in the first half so we tweaked a few things, they went out and I was really happy with what they did.

“We will look at things at training tonight (Thursday) and talk through the tactics we want to do for Saturday.

“I am sure Halesowen were there on Tuesday night but we will play exactly the same way, we will go straight at them.

“We will try to get a result and we fear nobody.”

On Williams’ injury, Austin added: “It didn’t look good with Ben.

“Two or three years ago we would struggle to replace him but we have got a good squad that can cover him and let him recover.

“He’s a massive player for us but we have got personnel who can take his place.

Lutterworth Town’s hopes of a run in the FA Cup were ended in a 5-1 defeat at Kimberley Miners Welfare on Saturday, Rhys Roberts scoring the consolation. The Swifts are back in United Counties League Premier Division South action at Eynesbury Rovers this weekend.

Lutterworth Athletic enjoyed a fine start to the Spartan South Midlands League Division One season last Saturday as they won 5-1 at Holmer Green.

Charlie Adcock scored twice and there were further goals from Charles Butler, Sam Burton and Oliver Bradshaw for Athletic, who travel to Rushden & Higham United this weekend.