Saturday, November 5, 2005

THE difference between a promotion challenger and mid-table material was clearly illustrated at Aggborough on Saturday.

Unfortunately, despite Harriers' relegation to the Conference last season, it is they who are likely to be piggy-in-the-middle at best.

Well-drilled Exeter hit the hosts with an aerial bombardment and presented a tough physical challenge, as predicted by Kidderminster boss Stuart Watkiss.

And it was too much for Harriers, despite threatening to derail the Devon side's challenge for the top by taking a 49th-minute lead through teenage midfielder Simon Heslop.

But once Jon Challinor's barrage of long throws, Exeter's main form of attack, claimed the equaliser, there was only going to be one winner.

In the end, goalkeeper Daniel Lewis prevented Alex Inglethorpe's direct Exeter outfit winning by two goals.

It was no surprise the eventual winner arrived from a long diagonal ball although Tony Scully's crisp strike 13 minutes from time was worthy of clinching a match.

Watkiss believed his battered side should have stuck closer to their gameplan but they did lose three players to injury and skipper Mark Jackson sported a head bandage.

Cash-strapped Harriers just do not have the strength in depth to cope with such a situation, particularly against such uncompromising opposition.

The Kidderminster manager said: "It's disappointing to lose the way we did after getting ourselves into such a good position.

"All credit to Exeter, you can see why they are doing so well in this division but in all fairness the two goals we've conceded were far too predictable.

"We didn't win the header we needed to win for the first one and Terry (Fleming) should have done better than he did with Scully for the second.

"The players deserve a certain amount of praise as, in terms of effort, they've given things a real go.

"But all of that goes out of the window if you fail to take on board what you've been speaking about and working on during the whole week."

Harriers lost Simon Russell with a suspected dislocated wrist, Martin O'Connor to his continuing knee problem and Gareth Sheldon to a hamstring injury so they are likely to be short on numbers for Saturday's daunting trip to Stevenage.

Although Taiwo Atieno glanced a header wide in a promising first-half for Harriers, they escaped when Lee Phillips headed against the bar from a Challinor long throw.

Sheldon, playing against his former club, forced a good low save from goalkeeper Paul Jones before Heslop struck his first competitive goal on 49 minutes with a comfortable 20-yard finish. But Lewis saved an Andy Taylor free-kick only for Chris Todd to glance home the equaliser from yet another Challinor throw in the 59th minute.

Sub Lee Thompson demanded another Jones save, again from distance, but Harriers were caught napping when impressive winger Scully gave Lewis no chance with a tremendous finish.

And the Harriers 'keeper denied Steve Flack a third goal from a one-on-one situation.

HARRIERS: Lewis; Mullins, Jackson, Burgess, Hatswell; Heslop, O'Connor (Wilson 55), Fleming, Russell (Christie 34); Sheldon (Thompson 57), Atieno. Subs not used: Danby, McHale. ATTENDANCE: 1,869.