Kidderminster Harriers face a race against time to repel the clubs looking to take star striker Matthew Barnes-Homer away from Aggborough before the loan deadline.

The club are not interested in letting the England C international go on a temporary basis but a deal could be brokered with a view to a permanent deal as soon as January’s transfer window opens, albeit for a substantial fee.

Harriers remain insistent that the player is not for sale but that has not stopped clubs registering their interest, and a big-money bid could seal a deal for the nine-goal forward.

Yates maintains that any deal involving the 23-year-old is a fair way off, with the clock ticking to today’s 5pm deadline.

He said: “There is interest in Matthew, in fact there are a couple of clubs more than interested. We will see, I have got clubs interested in the player and we are trying to find them off. I don’t know what the asking price would be, we haven’t got that far, but he won’t come cheap.

“We don’t want to sell him, but it might not be a simple as that if a serious bid comes in. All we can do is see what today brings. If ‘Barnesy’ is still a Kidderminster Harriers player tomorrow than he will be here until January, when we will have to fend clubs off again no doubt.”

The manager is still trying to bring players in before the deadline, although he remained tight-lipped on whether it could be a potential replacement for Barnes-Homer.

Yates said: “We are still working on one or two things, but I am waiting on a couple of answers.”

Better news for Harriers is that the club are close to extending the loan terms of young Peterborough left-back Danny Andrew for another month, to take effect after next Tuesday’s Blue Square Premier home game against Tamworth.

A deal has already been struck between Yates and his good friend at Posh, new manager Mark Cooper.

The Harriers boss said: “We have agreed with Peterborough that Danny will be staying with us, the paperwork just needs to be tied up. I have spoken to ‘Coops’ last week about him and it doesn’t look like he is going to get in their team at the moment, so we will be able to keep him for another month.”