Harriers 0 Tamworth 1

If Harriers, Barry Norgrove and Stuart Watkiss thought the summer from Hell was stormy then they had better brace themselves for a bitter old winter of discontent, writes Mat Kendrick.

Even the Kidderminster chairman, the manager and their closest allies would struggle to defend this latest sub-standard display. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC.

In the space of three weeks Harriers have gone from play-off outsiders plodding along picking up points to apparent no-hopers.

Who knows just how costly John Danby's howler at pace-setters Grays Athletic on September 10 could become?

Had Harriers held onto their lead rather than conceded an injury time equaliser that afternoon they would have gone joint top and would have surely kicked on with confidence.

If that was a turning point in Harriers' season, then they are desperately in need of another after continuing their recent rut with a shocking performance against the Lambs.

With Mark Cooper's part-timers leaving Aggborough with all three points, Watkiss had to come to terms with Kidderminster's second defeat to the Conference's bottom club - the first was Crawley - in the space of four days.

And although Harriers could feel somewhat hard done by at Crawley, they only had themselves to blame against Tamworth.

It took Harriers fully 43 minutes to register their first shot of any sort with Laurie Wilson sending a dipping free kick inches over the crossbar.

But a goal there or from their next attack two minutes later, when Taiwo Atieno wasted a good pass from Iyseden Christie to poke over, would merely have papered over the cracks of a miserable display.

Tamworth could have gone into the break three or four goals to the good but for poor finishing and some great shot-stopping from the up and down Danby.

After just five minutes the Harriers number one bravely threw himself at the feet of West Bromwich Albion legend Bob Taylor to make amends after he and Mark Jackson had failed to react to an Adie Smith ball into the box.

Taylor turned provider minutes later with a dangerous cross from the left and Dave Bampton should have done better than steer his header woefully wide from close range.

Danby was again called upon to keep out Taylor with his feet after more hesitation in by Harriers just before half-time but his relief was short-lived as Tamworth forced the ball in from the same passage of play.

No fewer than five Harriers players were in the six yard box and in a position to clear when a spot of penalty-box pinball resulted in another former Albion man, Carl Heggs scooping the ball in.

And as the Kidderminster boss put it, from that moment on any remaining reserves of confidence drained away from his team.

After half-time it was the same old story.

Atieno's transition from bright young thing to startled rabbit continued when he took too long to react to Simon Heslop's pass and saw a good scoring chance snuffed out by his marker, although he did threaten with a viscious volley over from 35 yards.

Michael Blackwood came within an inch of an equaliser with a diving header from fellow sub SImon Russell's cross and warmed the hands of Tamworth keeper James Dormand with a low drive, but otherwise it was pretty perfunctory stuff.

Smith, one of Tamworth's three ex-Harriers along with Graham Ward and Scott Stamps should have rubbed salt into Harriers wounds when he missed a sitter near the end.

The only thing that Harriers deserved were the boos that rang around the ground as they traipsed from the field. And the crowd's anger would have been voiced even louder had half of them not already left the ground disgusted 20 minutes earlier.