Boston 3 Harriers 0

Mat Kendrick witnesses Harriers' Football League life come to an end at York Street

KIDDERMINSTER Harriers' proud Football League status was not lost on a bobbly pitch in East Lincolnshire on Saturday.

It was lost in the commentary boxes of Portugal last summer.

It was lost on the beaches of Barbados in November.

It was lost in the apathetic boardrooms of businesses across Wyre Forest.

It was lost in the homes of stay-away supporters.

It was lost on the training fields of Brown Westhead Park.

It was lost in the corridors of Aggborough.

It was lost on countless pitches across the country.

There are so many reasons why Harriers' five-year stay in the upper echelons of the English game came to a halt at the weekend.

But in some ways Boston's stadium was as apt a place as any for the end of an era because it offered a stark reminder of the journey Harriers now face.

Anybody who has ever visited York Street will know that although it's not physically that far away, it's one hell of a jaunt to get back

And that analogy is just as true of the Football League. Once you leave the elite 92 Club, making the return trip is gruelling and often impossible.

The vocal 170 away fans defiantly chanted "We'll come straight back up" as the reality of relegation finally sank in on Saturday, but in their heart of hearts they know it's not that simple.

From being a relatively big fish in a small pond half a decade ago, Harriers will be an average-sized fish in a small pond when they return to familiar non-league territory next term.

Considering the stakes on Saturday, Kidderminster's loyal band of red and white followers were let down once again by an insipid performance from their Harriers 'heroes'.

A minor road accident en-route to the match meant many of them only arrived at the ground minutes before kick-off while the winding roads out of Boston were also blocked.

But the most frustrating thing from a Harriers point of view was watching the wheels of Stuart Watkiss's survival bandwagon fall off "with a whimper" as the manager so succinctly put it in his post-match post mortem.

Take a mid-table team with nothing to play for and pit them against a relegation-threatened side with their livelihoods on the line and there should only be one winner, in terms of spirit and determination at least.

But the fact was that Boston out-battled visitors who seemed visibly resigned to relegation and gave the impression they were merely going through the motions

It's ironic that players who ply their trade a long throw away from the Severn Valley Railway should run out of steam, but that's precisely what happened.

The intense pressure Harriers have been under during a rollercoaster run-in had clearly taken its toll on the squad and to their immense credit the travelling supporters realised this with their generous applause at the final whistle.

As for the match it was the Mr Hyde Harriers, complete with defensive slackness and poor finishing that put the final nail in the club's League coffin.

They were completely carved apart for Jermaine Easter's opener and went missing for Jason Lee's tap in before there was much ado about Lee nutting Mark Jackson and getting himself sent off, while Brad Maylett heaped more misery on them with a well-taken third.

Wayne Hatswell's head and Mark Rawle's boot wasted great first-half chances while Boston stopper Nathan Abbey strangled any remaining life out of them with super saves from Rawle and John McGrath.

As Harriers survey the wreckage of the 2004-2005 season, questions will persist about who is to blame and what could and should have been done differently.

Should Jan Molby have gone to Euro 2004? Why were half the board on holiday when the club were managerless? Could the people and firms of Kidderminster have invested more? Was everybody at Aggborough pulling in the same direction? And so on and so forth.

But perhaps the most pertinent poser of all is will Kidderminster Harriers ever be a Football League club again?

BOSTON: Abbey, West, White (Brooks 43), McCann, Pitt, Rusk, Maylett (Norris 90), Holland, Thomas, Lee, Easter (Clare 65). Subs not used: O'Donnell, Raynor.

HARRIERS: Danby 7, Weaver 6, Jones 5, Hatswell 5, Jackson 5, Cozic 5, McGrath 5, Keates 6, Bennett 5 (Russell 37, 5), Sturrock 5 (Christie 58, 5), Rawle 6. Subs not used: Jenkins, Sall.

REFEREE: A Woolmer (Northamptonshire).

ATTENDANCE: 2,053 (170 away fans).