They think it's all over - it's not yet

Mat Kendrick reports from the Causeway Stadium

THERE'S some people on the pitch, they think it's all over - it's not yet.

Despite Harriers' on-field representatives giving the impression they'd thrown in the towel during an all-time low at Wycombe on Saturday - it's up to their furious fans to convince them otherwise.

Performances like the one at the Causeway Stadium are difficult to forgive and forget. But that's precisely what everybody at Aggborough must do to stand any chance of salvaging a happy ending from this mess of a season.

After six unbeaten games on the trot, Harriers were due a wobble which duly arrived with defeat at home to Mansfield.

Quite how Stuart Watkiss's players care to explain the dross they produced against the Chairboys is another matter - but the recriminations must wait.

Watkiss has used a range of psychological methods to keep Kidderminster in the hunt for survival since arriving to steady a sinking ship last December.

His next ploy, albeit one of desperation, must surely be to remind his players how badly they let down everybody of a red-and-white persuasion last weekend and how urgently they need the five biggest performances of their careers to make amends.

Cup finals might have been few and far between for Harriers in recent years, but their fixtures against Bury, Yeovil, Boston, Grimsby and Northampton really are must-win clashes.

The best way of achieving success in those games is to do exactly the opposite of the Wycombe debacle - because Watkiss was not exaggerating when he described this as the worst performance of his time in management.

Harriers were found lacking in every depa-rtment. The biggest surprise of the weekend in League Two was not Rush-den's unexpected win over Yeovil, but quite how shocking Kidderminster were.

Had Jan Molby's Harriers produced a performance like this earlier in the season, it would have been understandable, if equally unacceptable because that set of players clearly lacked the ability, appetite and aggression of their successors.

But having showed they can live with the best this division has to offer in recent months, Watkiss's warriors are better, much better, than that and their fans deserve much, much more.

The major fear now from the manager's point of view is that his troops' heads have gone and that certainly seemed the case the way his previously solid defence completely collapsed.

Nathan Tyson, who has so often packed a punch against Harriers, ran them ragged, grabbing a hat-trick without really having to work for it.

His first goal on 25 minutes caught the Kidderminster defence napping and he sent a firm shot flying past John Danby after bursting onto Joe Burnell's pass through the inside left channel.

Tyson made it two on 36 minutes with a goal which was even worse from a Harriers point of view as Wayne Hatswell and Johnny Mullins got in each other's way defending a long ball and the former Swansea and Cheltenham frontman took full advantage.

It was only a matter of time before Tyson completed his treble with Dean Keates failing to clear Steve Claridge's left wing cross on 76 minutes, allowing the speedy striker to spin and fire in another clinical effort from close range.

As the manager admitted afterwards, Kidderminster were second best all over the park and but for some poor Wycombe finishing and a kind linesman's flag could have been buried beneath an avalanche of goals.

Tyson hit the bar amid another hat-trick of decent chances for the Chairboys 22-goal leading scorer while, during his long career, veteran Claridge cannot have missed many easier opportunities than the open goal that went begging just before the break.

Other than a Keates free kick which flashed just wide and openings for substitutes Iyseden Christie and Gary Birch - on as part of a half time overhaul by the boss - the travelling Harriers fans had absolutely nothing to cheer about.

And if the Aggborough brigade are going to keep the faith and stay positive over the coming weeks, their Harriers 'heroes' desperatley owe them something in return.

WYCOMBE: Talia, Senda, Easton(Stonebridge 16), Johnson, Williamson, Uhlenbeek, Burnell (Dixon 77), Lee, Bloomfield, Tyson, Claridge (Casceres 72). Subs not used: Cronin, Nethercott.

HARRIERS: Danby 6, Weaver 6, Hatswell 4 (Jones 46, 5), Mullins 4, Jackson 5, Cozic 5, McGrath 5, Keates 5, Bennett 5, Rawle 4 (Birch 46, 5), Beardsley 5 (Christie 46, 5). Subs not used: Sturrock, Russell.

REFEREE: Joe Ross (London)

ATTENDANCE: 4,608 (away fans 360).