KIDDERMINSTER Harriers boss Jan Molby had his first taste of the thrills and spills of derby matches against arch rivals Hereford United over Christmas and New Year -- and he admitted to being impressed.

The excitement sparked by the two Nationwide Conference clashes, which both ended in 1-1 draws, fired up the former Liverpool ace for an even greater effort to help Harriers realise their dream of gaining a place in the Football League.

He said: "The title race is going to be very open this year. Rushden & Diamonds have got themselves at the top of the pile now and what we have to make sure is that they don't develop too big a gap.

Kidderminster went into today's crucial match at title-rivals Nuneaton Borough in fourth spot in the table -- three points behind Rushden.

The Aggborough chief said: "Drawing games is not ideal, but we are still hanging on in there. We have got a good team spirit and that's shown by the fact that we have come from behind in our last three matches. The players have worked ever so hard and against Hereford on Monday the attitude was first class.

"It's still going to take a major effort to win the league, but I certainly think we are capable of it.

"The games against Hereford were tough but what we need to do now is to get back to winning a few matches.

"The point we got at Hereford was great and, because of that, we returned to Aggborough expecting to maybe take all three against them -- but we didn't.

"I was slightly disappointed but I think if we had managed to keep 11 players on the pitch against their ten we would probably have won it. Unfortunately it wasn't to be."

Molby, however, has not entirely ruled out the possibility of new blood being introduced at some stage to help sustain Kidderminster's push for promotion.

"That might be an option, but we have players coming back from injury now like Andy Brownrigg. That's something to look forward to."

Molby is also excited by the way various members of his squad are continuing to develop, including midfielder Dean Bennett who went close to scoring what would have been a wonder goal against Hereford on Monday. He just failed to hit the target after a spectacular run which left three United players in his wake.

Molby said: "He's done ever so well for us and again he was among our better players on Monday. It was just a shame he didn't score what would have been a very special goal."