Saturday, November 15, 2003

JAN Molby believes Kidderminster Harriers players are enjoying their football again and they showed that in Saturday's handy Division Three win at Rochdale.

Harriers have now gone three games without conceding a goal on their travels and deserved to win by more than Matt Gadsby's 35th-minute decider.

Fellow relegation battlers Rochdale were not helped by an injury to Michael Simpkins which forced them to play with 10 men for the last 25 minutes as all three substitutes had been used.

Apart from a shaky first 15 minutes and the aerial threat of big Gareth Griffiths, Harriers held firm with skipper Wayne Hatswell leading by example at the back.

The visitors, spurred on by the quick-breaking Dean Bennett and John Williams from midfield, were only denied more goals by 'keeper Neil Edwards.

Molby has lifted Harriers four points away from the bottom two in a mini-revival of two league wins and a draw since taking over from Ian Britton.

He said: "First and foremost, I asked the players to enjoy their football and to play it at a high tempo. It's fantastic that we've been able to improve as much as we have with the current squad and just a couple of loan signings.

"The defence is improving and three consecutive away clean sheets speaks for itself. That's the only possible way we can win games at the moment because we are not as free-scoring as I would like."

Harriers were given a couple of early let-offs when 'keeper Stuart Brock denied striker Kevin Townson who then just failed to connect with a Leo Bertos cross from close range.

Molby's men began to control the midfield with Sean Parrish firing a good chance over from 15 yards following Andy White's excellent left-wing run and pull-back on 24 minutes.

But four minutes later Griffiths gave them problems with full-back Craig Hinton clearing his towering header from a Bertos corner off the line.

However, Harriers were looking more threatening and the tireless Bennett nearly surprised Edwards with an ambitious low 35-yarder which the 'keeper diverted onto the woodwork.

They found the net soon after when Williams skinned two defenders on the right and provided the perfect centre for Gadsby to slot home his first Football League goal from 12 yards.

Rochdale lost influential loan midfielder Gary Jones through injury just before half-time and then manager Alan Buckley crucially made two more interval changes.

It seemed like it might pay off when Griffiths won another header from Patrick McCourt's flag-kick but Brock was again equal to the challenge with a diving save.

Edwards had to make a fine stop at the other end on 59 minutes to deny goal-hungry Gadsby from 20 yards after the midfielder had connected with White's lay-off.

Rochdale's skilful McCourt had a quiet game but the Northern Ireland international did display some dazzling footwork to force one parry from Brock on 63 minutes.

Bo Henriksen, introduced for White, nearly added a second for Harriers three minutes from the end only to see Edwards push his chip onto the bar and over.