GARY Birch has set his sights on scoring the goals to keep Kidderminster Harriers up after admitting a stinging attack from his manager made him take a long hard look at himself.

The former Walsall striker has finally opened his Harriers account with two goals in two games after boss Stuart Watkiss publicly accused him of failing to pull his weight.

And the 23-year-old frontman is now aiming to take his goals tally into double figures - providing he can remain injury-free until the end of the season.

"When any manager comes out in the press and says something like that you've got to take a long, hard look at yourself," he said.

"It does affect you. To be honest I thought I was pulling my weight on the pitch and I think he was really on about what I was doing in training.

"Obviously the goals weren't coming so he wanted me to do a little bit extra with my finishing. We've started to do that and it's looking as if things are turning round.

"From a personal point of view it's picked up for me in the last couple of games.

"I played out of position at Scunthorpe and got a goal again so it's nice to score in back to back appearances. But from a team point of view we need to start picking up results on a back to basis.

Although it took Birch nine games to break his Harriers duck, after some indifferent performances, he was confident the goals would come. "Wherever I've gone I've always scored goals, including in reserve team football and when I've been out on loan so I knew it would be no different here," he said.

"I was always going to get chances, it's just about putting them away and fortunately I've started to do that.

In Tom Bennett's absence, Birch has been called upon to drop back into the holding role. And although he prefers to play as an out and out frontman, Birch is happy to help out Harriers any way he can.

"I'll play wherever I'm told to play as long as it benefits the team," he said. "I've played at centre half for Walsall so I'm used to it because the holding role is pretty similar apart from the fact that you can get forward a bit more."

With 15 games remaining Birch is confident of boosting his goals tally to 10 before the end of the season. He said: "I didn't set myself a target before I came here but obviously I'm getting the chances so if I can stay fit I'm aiming to make it into double figures by the end of the season."

Birch has been playing through the pain barrier with a knee injury in recent weeks and he is happy to battle on after being told he can delay surgery.

"I've been advised by a specialist that my knee won't get any worse so I'll play on and I'm sure my knee will tell me when enough is enough."I'm having it assessed regularly and it does play on my mind especially when I'm limping the day after a match."

Watkiss will check on the fitness of Dean Keates (shoulder) ahead of Saturday's visit of Chester. while Tom Bennett, Johnny Mullins, Simon Weaver and Blair Sturrock are expecting to be available after illness.