Saturday, March 27, 2004

SIMON Brown boosted Kidderminster's Division Three survival hopes with a debut goal at promotion-chasing Lincoln City.

The 20-year-old, signed on a month's loan from West Bromwich Albion on transfer deadline day, pounced in the 46th minute only for the Red Imps to equalise with a last-gasp goal from Marcus Richardson.

The well deserved draw nudged Harriers eight points clear of the relegation zone.

The performance delighted Aggborough director of football Jan Molby, who was particularly pleased with striker Brown, who has been a regular in Albion's reserve side this season.

The Dane said: "His movement is great and a couple of times he looked like he was offside because he's so quick, but he wasn't.

"He had a lot more of the ball in the second half and obviously because of that he was more effective. He can be delighted, he had a super debut."

After being under the cosh in the early stages Harriers steadily began to cope with Lincoln's style of play, although they did have a few anxious moments during the first half.

Gary Fletcher had a goalbound shot blocked by Wayne Hatswell and Richardson missed a great chance by delaying his shot far too long.

Brown, however, delighted Harriers' 185 travelling fans by coolly slotting the ball past 'keeper Alan Marriott after it had fallen into his path following a deflected pass from Mark Yates.

Lincoln responded with a Ben Futcher header which glanced off the bar before Richardson gabbed the equaliser in the 89th minute.

Molby said: "The fact that they scored a goal late on, it shouldn't have been an equaliser. I felt we should have been out of sight by then. But we had a linesman who put the flag up every time we attacked which is quite incredible, so I think in the end a 1-1 draw away from home against 14 men was an excellent result.

"Lincoln put everything into our box, but they had no chances. We had chances in the second half on the breakaway, but the linesman kept putting a flag up.

"We were poor in the first half because we knew we had to deal with all the things that they'd throw at us. We failed to play any football and we said to the players at half time 'isn't there anything you want to do in this game'. And we showed that in the second half. We played some good football on the counter attack, got an early goal and we had good opportunities to score more."

Molby described his team's overall efforts as 'magnificent', saying: "This is a difficult place to come to, but we showed all the qualities that you need to be a good team. We were physically strong, we were determined and we showed real pace on the break. It's 14 points from seven games now and that's promotion form and I'm delighted."

During the second half Molby drafted on substitute striker Leon Clarke, on loan from Wolves. Molby said: "He's a little bit raw, but he's got pace. The reason he didn't start is because it was here at Lincoln and this type of game. I'm sure he's going to give us plenty of qualities."