KIDDERMINSTER Harriers defender Craig Hinton has quickly lear-ned to live with life in the Football League.

So much so that he has been one of Harriers' most consistent performers this season.

And on Saturday against Leyton Orient he even got himself on the scoresheet when he notched his fifth goal in 97 appearances for the club.

Twenty-two-year-old Hinton join-ed Harriers in 1998 after an impressive trial period at Aggborough following his release from Birming-ham City at the end of the 1997-98 season.

He began his career at right-back before reverting to a centre-half role mid-way through last season.

And the switch has certainly paid rich dividends with a string of imp-ressive displays both in the Nation-wide Conference and the Third Div-ision.

Hinton, however, admits to soon realising the difference between the two levels.

"It's quicker now. A lot of people say there is not much difference, but there is.

"It's a lot sharper and people are a lot fitter.

"Players are stronger and there's a lot more movement.

"It is a better division so we've just got to im-prove abilitywise and strengthwise.

"But we should do well. The manager tells us to believe in ourselves, and last Saturday he came in at half-time and said that if we bel-ieved in ourselves we'd win.

"It's just self-belief. We know as a side that on our day we can beat anyone."

And Hinton certainly had enough belief in himself when he rose above the Orient defence on Sat-urday to equalise for Harriers who went on to snatch a 2-1 victory at Aggborough.

Meanwhile, Harriers first choice goalkeeper Tim Clarke is on the comeback trail following his recent knee operation.

He is now back in training and hoping to get off the injury list as soon as possible.

The only casualties now are front- runner Ian Foster who still has hamstring trouble and winger Tho-mas Skovbjerg with a long term knee injury.

Strapped up goalkeeper Stuart Brock has continued to play despite suffering a broken bone in his right hand in the warm up to Kiddermin-ster's recent Worthington Cup first round second leg clash against Division Two pace-setters Walsall at Aggborough on Tuesday, Septem-ber 5.

Meanwhile, Harriers are preparing now preparing for their difficult trip to Cardiff City on Sat-urday.

Bobby Gould's Cardiff are the only unbeaten side in the Third Division and are currently in third place in the table - two slots above Harriers.

Last Saturday Kidderminster end-ed Leyton Orient's unbeaten re-cord and manager Jan Molby is hoping to repeat the medine ag-ainst the Bluebirds.

He said: "Cardiff had a win-draw start to the season, but now they are scoring goals.

"They are starting to fire and it was a very impressive 2-0 win that they achieved at Scunthorpe last Saturday.

"I think it will be our biggest test so far."

Molby, together with former Car-diff front-runner Tony Bird, is ex-pecting a hot reception on Satur-day.

He knows that the Cardiff fans will remember his managerial links with Swansea City -- the Bluebirds old enemy!

* Read Chris Oldnall every Tuesday in the Evening News.