Saturday, February 10, 2001

A HUGE sigh of relief swept through Aggborough when Kidderminster Harriers clinched their first win since Boxing Day by beating Barnet 2-1 in a Nationwide League Division Three clash.

"Hopefully, this will give us a little bit of confidence. I know we can play a lot better but the main thing was three points," said Harriers' boss Jan Molby after his mid-table side had battled back from falling a goal behind.

The Bees went ahead in the 14th minute through player-manager Tony Cottee, but Kidderminster ended a grim run of seven league games without a victory with second half goals from Neil Mackenzie and Drewe Broughton.

Molby said: "We are pleased with the three points. We don't know what this win is going to do, but we knew we needed it. Hopefully, it will help us for the rest of the season.

"When we were losing games we said we'll play worse and win. That's what we've done. We played worse than we did at Mansfield and probably at places like Plymouth and Halifax, but this time we've won. At the end of the day that's what matters.

"The performance was never going to count it was just that the three points were going to be important.

"Obviously it was disappointing to concede an early goal, but when you are up against people like Tony Cottee he will get chances from nothing. But from there on in we tried to play and I can't remember them having a chance. You felt in the first half that if we could put a spell together we could get our way back into it. Scoring so early in the second half was just what we needed.

"We would have liked it to have been three or four one as that would probably given the players more confidence, but we can't be choosy at the moment. Three points is great."

Barnet, who drew 0-0 at home to Harriers in September, took the lead when former West Ham, Everton and Leicester hot-shot collected a pass from Sam Stockley before turning defender Craig Hinton and scoring with a shot just inside the far post.

The well taken goal signalled the start of an improvement in Harriers overall play but they were unable to get back on level terms before half-time.

Ten minutes after the interval, however, it was 1-1 thanks to a superbly struck 30 yard shot from Mackenzie, who said afterwards: "It didn't matter how we played but we badly needed the three points. It was so important we won and that's what's happened. We are all very pleased about it.

"Once you get into a rut you just can't get out of it. We needed the result to give people confidence that we can win games.

"We were quite confident going into the game. The gaffer had a chat with us and we had got a game-plan, but we couldn't stick to it because their goal went in early and we had to abandon it and go forward.

"We have really got to stop giving goals away. If it's 0-0 we are giving ourselves a much better chance, but we always seem to be going in at half-time a goal or two down."

Ten minutes after Mackenzie had broken the deadlock Broughton pounced to notch what proved to be the winner. It came in the shape of a close range header following a pin-point cross from John Durnin. It was Broughton's third goal in his fifth appearance since moving to Aggborough in a loan deal from Peterborough United.

A minute earlier he had been denied by a point blank save from keeper Lee Harrison who also denied Dean Bennett in the closing stages.