St@tto's Kidderminster Harriers Diary
|
27 July Harriers Get Out Of Jail Two goals in the last three minutes saved Harriers from an embarrassing defeat at local rivals Worcester City. The Doc Marten's League side took an early lead when Adam Webster took advantage of a defensive mix-up and early in the second half went further ahead with a goal from former Harriers youth team player Jamie Edwards. Danny McDonnell kept City in the game with a string of good saves but once he was substituted with five minutes to go, Harriers managed to convert their chances and goals from Bo Henriksen and Andy Corbett salvaged a draw for The Reds. 24 July Harriers Thrown To The Wolves After the dreadful display of defending at Solihull on Sunday, Harriers gave a much better all round performance against First Division Wolves. In an even game they were stronger in the tackle and kept possession well but were unable to create many clear cut scoring chances. Former Harrier Colin Larkin was involved in the opening goal scored by Adam Proudlock, and it was Proudlock who scored the late second from the penalty spot after Sean Parrish had handled. 24 July Harriers Handed Tough Trip In Worthington Cup The draw for the Preliminary and First rounds of the Worthington Cup was made today and Harriers were handed a tough opening game at Nottingham Forest. The tie, a one-off encounter is due to be played in the week commencing September 9, probably Wednesday 11. Harriers have yet to progress beyond the First Round having been eliminated by Walsall over two legs and Preston in extra-time, although this season will be the latest that they have stayed in the competition beating the previous best of September 5. The full draw can be found here. 21 July Poor Defending Costs Harriers Dear Harriers suffered their second pre-season defeat in three days losing a seven-goal thriller at Solihull Borough. Two early goals, one from Sam Shilton and a penalty from Ian Foster, put Harriers ahead, but sloppy defending at corners allowed the home team to draw level before the interval. Andy Corbett restored Harriers' lead but more poor defending lead to Solihull equalising again and then taking the lead. 19 July Reds Sunk By Royals Harriers suffered their first defeat of the pre-season programme at the hands of First Division Reading United at Aggborough. A surprisingly competitive game for a friendly saw the visitors take an early lead through Nicky Forster only for goals from Drewe Broughton and a belter from Bo Henriksen swung the game back in Harriers' favour. Shortly before the break, however, Sean Parrish found the net for the first time in a Harriers shirt, unfortunately in his own net. Early in the second half the Harriers defence went AWOL, giving manager Ian Britton something else to consider in the coming weeks, and allowed first Martin Butler and then John Salako to score in quick succession and end the game for the visitors. 15 July Harriers Record First Friendly Victory Harriers continued the pre-season preparations with a comfortable 4-0 win over Evesham United at Common Road. Andy Ducros and Drewe Broughton gave Harriers a 2-0 half-time lead and after the break Harriers' superior fitness began to show and the game was won with two late goals from Andy Corbett and Sam Shilton. 15 July Matt Lewis Heading For Premiership Harriers' talented young striker hs joined Premiership side Aston Villa on a two-week trial. The Birmingham-based side originally approached Ian Britton about the possibility of taking him on trial at the end of last season but nothing came of the approach at that time. Harriers boss Britton has stressed that at this stage it is nothing more than a trial and no deal has been done. A transfer fee would be due to the club if Villa decide to follow up their interest as the player is still under contract, although most of any fee would probably be tie up in appearance and sell-on clauses. Last season the striker finished as the top scorer at the club, appearing 55 times and scoring 34 goals in total across all four teams from First team down to Under-18. 13 July Harriers Held At Lowly Stratford The pre-season programme got underway this afternoon with a trip to Stratford Town of the Midland Alliance, with Harriers coming from behind to draw 1-1. Ian Britton used it as an opportunity to give a run out to most of his squad using 20 players including three from the youth team squad. Harriers created and wasted a string of chances but fell behind to a John Halford goal midway through the first half. Wholesale changes at half-time brought dividends for Harriers as the strike partnership of Drewe Broughton and Matt Lewis eventually brought an equaliser from Lewis. 9 July Squad Numbers Revamped Harriers have announced the squad numbers for the coming season, several players have been assigned new numbers closing up the gaps in the sequence. Abdou Sall has moved into the vacant 2 slot, Danny Williams moves up to 4 with new signing Sean Parrish taking his number 8. Dean Bennett returns to the 7 that he wore in Harriers' first League season and Daire Doyle then drops down to 15. Bo Henriksen is now 12, Andy Corbett 17, Ian Joy 18, Matt Lewis 19 and Mark Blake 20. Other people have tried to read significance into the allocation of numbers, for instance as Sall is now 2 is he to be right-back? The days are long gone when numbers had any relation to position and are now purely a means of identification. I can't really see the point of changing them around unless the Football League in their wisdom decided that a squad list with gaps is just too messy. 1 July Britton Unveils First Signing Boss Ian Britton has today unveiled his first signing since taking over at the Harriers helm. As expected it is Chesterfield midfielder Sean Parrish who arrives on a Bosman free transfer and has signed a two-year contract. Despite the refusal of the club to reveal the name of the new player since announcing that a signing would be made, speculation has been rife for the last few days that Parrish was the man because he fit the profile created by the few scraps of information given out by Harriers management. At one point it was feared that the club had lost out to Wrexham, the player's home town club, who announced a new signing but that turned out to be Swindon Town's Paul Edwards. Chesterfield had offered him a new one-year extension to his current deal but he felt that Harriers offer of a longer deal was a better option. Britton described his new signing as "a winner" and "a tough character and leader". |
