CHAIRMAN Barry Norgrove has insisted Kidderminster Harriers' play-off wish be rekindled by their new manager.

Norgrove and his board of directors wielded the axe yesterday with Stuart Watkiss paying the price for a disappointing start to life back in the Conference.

Harriers are 15th in the table after last season's relegation from League Two and lost out on potential FA Cup cash with their meek fourth qualifying round exit to Southport in October.

But the timing of the decision to end Watkiss' one-year, 50-game tenure was surprising given he had secured their first league win in nearly two months over Dagenham and Redbridge on Saturday.

Norgrove said: "We just felt that, overall, results weren't good enough. I think if you take the season as a whole, we haven't performed well enough in the Conference and we just think it's time for a change.

"We went on a run of half-a-dozen games or so without winning which obviously made a lot of the supporters upset, understandably.

"Admittedly, there are games where we've been hard done by, with late goals or bad refereeing or whatever, but at the end of the day only final results will get us back into the Football League which is where we want to be. The play-offs are still our goal this season."

Harriers will advertise and in-tend to appoint a new man by the end of December in time for the January transfer window.

Possible candidates such as Mark Yates, the former Harriers skipper currently coaching at Burnley, and ex-Shrewsbury manager Jimmy Quinn have been mentioned by fans.

Player-coach Martin O'Connor will get a chance to stake his claim for the job in the interim as caretaker-boss, starting with Saturday's daunting trip to leaders Accrington Stanley.

Norgrove added: "Martin is very well respected by all the players in the dressing room."

Watkiss was unavailable for comment.