Saturday, February 15, 2003

BOSS Ian Britton praised John Melligan and Bo Henriksen for their top quality goals as Kidderminster Harriers stepped up their Nationwide League Division Three play-off hopes with a well deserved 2-0 victory over high-riding Torquay United at Aggborough.

Melligan opened the scoring after 20 minutes before Henriksen sealed the points in the second half with his 14th goal of the season.

Delighted Britton said: "They were great goals. In fact, if this had been a Premiership game everyone would be talking about them."

Harriers victory lifted them up a place to 11th in the table, just two points away from a play-off spot.

Britton said: "Everybody played well. They worked hard and they all did their bit. We deserved to win. Apart from the one that hit the bar our goalkeeper Fraser Digby didn't have anything to do and we got two great goals.

"Henriksen had a quiet game by his standards and I was toying with bringing him off five minutes before he scored, but you leave him on because he can do that type of thing.

"But we've now got to take this win on to Exeter tomorrow and Boston on Saturday. We want to get into the play-off party and ruffle a few feathers."

For Kidderminster it was the ideal way to play their last match in front of the Bill Greaves Terrace which it is soon to be demolished and replaced by a new £1.1 million all-seater stand to accommodate 2,040 spectators.

They began at a high tempo and quickly signalled their intentions when a Danny Williams effort bounced off the bar in the tenth minute.

Ten minutes later, however, it was 1-0 when on-loan midfielder Melligan unleashed a terrific 25 shot shot which dipped into the net over diving keeper Kevin Dearden after the chance had been created by neat play between Henriksen and Sam Shilton.

Fifth-placed Torquay improved after the break and began to look more threatening, although they continued to find it difficult to engineer a way through.

Midfielder Jason Fowler began to look the most likely to break through with a couple of shots but it was Harriers who finally settled the issue when Henriksen pounced in the 69th minute with a perfectly struck curling shot past Dearden.

In the closing stages Torquay's Martin Gritton had a shot hit the bar, but it was nowhere near enough to stop Harriers from clinching their seventh home win.