Harriers 0 Chester 1

Mat Kendrick reports from Aggborough

IF HARRIERS concentrated more on what was happening in the box rather than what was on it, they might not be in this mess.

Stuart Watkiss was quick to criticise his players for putting the telly on in the dressing room to check the results of their relegation rivals straight after Saturday's game.

The boss's argument was that if Harriers focused on getting their own act together in both penalty boxes it wouldn't matter what was happening elsewhere.

So after seeing Kidderminster switch off to allow Stuart Drummond to grab the only goal of the game, an angry Watkiss stormed into the Aggborough dressing room and unplugged the TV.

As luck would have it, despite Watkiss's protestations to the contrary, it is the failures of Harriers' fellow strugglers that are currently keeping his club's hopes alive.

For despite producing performances infinitely better than his predecessor, Watkiss's squad are no nearer to turning it into consistent results with his record now reading played 13, won four and lost nine.

Rushden's relegation form and Cambridge's continued inadequacies have kept Harriers hanging in there, but there's only so long they can rely on others.

Chester at home was a perfect chance for Harriers to break the win one, lose two habit which has frustratingly developed under the new regime.

Ian Rush's men have not been in the best of form and offered very little in a disappointing lower league clash.

But while the Cestrians were disciplined enough to keep a clean sheet and clinical enough to put away their only real chance, the same could not be said of Harriers.

A mundane first half was almost brought to life by a text book Gary Birch header which should have led to his third goal in as many games.

But despite doing everything right and powerfully nodding the ball back the way it had arrived from Billy Jones's left wing cross, it rebounded to safety off the crossbar, summing up the bad luck of the striker who then aggravated his niggly knee injury and limped out of the action.

The other main talking point for Kidderminster was an early penalty appeal from Jones which was waved away by the referee after the full back went down under the challenge of Michael Branch.

Former Wolves and Everton frontman Branch was involved at the other end shortly afterwards when he squandered a one-on-one with Danby by screwing his shot hopelessly wide.

By then the Harriers number one had already proved his worth with a fantastic acrobatic leap to keep out a stinging 30 yard free kick from Sean Hessey, while the keeper also managed to tip over Joe O'Neill's lob.

Once again Harriers had the better of the play second half with Blair Sturrock seeing his close range effort scrambled around the post by Wayne Brown and Chris Beardsley sending a firm drive whizzing narrowly wide of the angle.

With Stuart Watkiss employing captain Wayne Hatswell in the holding role of a new look 4-1-2-1-2 formation, Chester were unable to create much from open play.

But the visitors did look dangerous whenever they swung over setpieces and a fierce free kick from former Harrier Ben Davies stung Danby's hands midway through the second half.

And anybody who has watched Kidderminster in their various guises this season knew it would only be a matter of time before they shot themselves in the foot.

The inevitable Harriers hiccup arrived on 76 minutes when Hessey was allowed to get to the byline and squeeze his cross through a crowded goalmouth, with Drummond gleefully forcing in the winner from eight yards.

HARRIERS: Danby 7, Jenkins 6 (Cozic 79), Jones, Weaver 7, Mullins 7, Hatswell 7, McGrath 6, Bennett 6, Russell 6 (Foster 67, 6), Beardsley 7, Birch 7 (Sturrock 46, 6). Subs not used: Lewis, Sall.

CHESTER: Brown, Edmondson, Bolland, Hope, Hessey, Drummond, Davies, Branch (Brown 58), O'Neil, Carden, Atieno. Subs not used: MacKenzie, Hillier, Vaughan, Elokobi.

ATTENDANCE: 2,779 (away 488).

REFEREE: P Crossley (Kent).