MANAGER Mark Yates believes Kidderminster Harriers are still well-placed to challenge for honours in the Blue Square Premier.

Despite losing 2-0 at Cambridge United last time out, the Aggborough club sit ninth in the table, just five points adrift of the play-off positions.

The team has chance to ponder that position today with a training session filling a blank date in the diary following their FA Cup exit at Fleetwood two weeks ago.

But Yates, whose team host runaway leaders Oxford United next weekend, is content with his players’ progress, particularly after the upheaval in personnel over the summer.

He said: “We’ve been beaten in the FA Cup, but Fleetwood was always going to be a tough place to go, and we lost in the league last Saturday but we’re still right in there with a shout.

“We’re in a decent enough position — we can’t keep beating ourselves up.

“Nobody wants to win more than me, every game that we play.

“There are some decent teams below us and above us and we’re right in the pack.

“We’ve got to be pleased with where we are but also know that we need to improve and keep working hard.

“If we do that, with the sprit we’ve got in the squad and the quality of some of the players, hopefully we can still do something which would be remarkable considering what we were talking about at the end of last season and the beginning of this season.”

Meanwhile, Harriers striker Matthew Barnes-Homer, the club’s top-scorer, has been placed on stand-by for the England ‘C’ international against Poland in Grodzisk Wielkopolski on Tuesday, November 17.