Express & Star

Kidderminster Harriers 2 Spennymoor Town - Report

Ashley Chambers scored twice to keep Kidderminster Harriers in with a fighting chance of scrambling into a National League North play-off spot following a well earned triumph over high-riding Spennymoor Town at wind battered Aggborough.

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On-song Chambers scored in each half with the Moors goal coming from Glen Taylor in an entertaining match.

The win nudged manager Mark Yates’ men to within a point of the play-off zone with seven matches left to play, including their next three outings against Brackley Town, Altrincham and Bradford (Park Avenue) who are all above them in the table.

Eighth-placed Kidderminster, who lost 2-1 at Spennymoor in January, made a couple of changes from the side which slumped to a grim 3-0 defeat at table-topping Chorley the previous Saturday with Harry Flowers taking over from defender Fraser Horsfall.

Twenty two year old Flowers is Harriers’ latest loan signing along with 23 year old forward Kwame Thomas who have both arrived from Solihull Moors and will stay at Aggborough until the end of the season.

Milan Butterfield also returned to the starting line-up in place of Russ Penn who was on the substitutes’ bench together with Thomas and Horsfall.

The strong, swirling wind made it awkward for both sides, but it was Harriers who were first to threaten when a curling free kick by Chambers few just over the bar.

The visitors goalkeeper Matthew Gould was then well placed to safely gather a low shot from Joe Ironside before the hosts forced four corners inside the opening 14 minutes, but all proved fruitless.

Harriers attempted to make use of the wind being in their favour in the first period and Billy Daniels tried his luck with a shot from distance which was not far off target.

Their attacking efforts were eventually rewarded in the 21st minute when a fine through pass by Liam McAlinden set up Chambers to calmly slot the ball into the net.

Just after the half hour mark third-in-the-table Spennymoor were heavily indebted to alert Gould who pulled off an excellent save to keep out full blooded close range volley from Chambers.

The Moors took just four minutes of the second half to get back on level terms when Taylor headed home after the ball had been played back in following a splendid save by goalkeeper Brandon Hall to keep out a wind assisted misdirected header from Flowers.

Harriers responded within a minute when Chambers stroked the ball in after visiting captain James Curtis had failed to deal with a low cross from McAlinden. It was his 13th goal of the season – a haul which includes the dazzling hat-trick he bagged in Kidderminster’s previous home game when they beat bottom-of-the-table Nuneaton Borough 4-1.

Shortly afterwards Ironside had a couple of efforts on goal, but both were well saved by Gould before Hall denied the visitors a late equaliser by saving well from substitute Adam Boyes.

Spennymoor stepped up their bid to peg back Harriers and diving Hall did well to push away a deflected shot from Jamie Chandler before Taylor had a headed ‘goal’ disallowed.

To add to their misery the visitors had Rob Ramshaw red carded for an incident after the final whistle.

Teams

Kidderminster: Hall; Austin (Horsfall, 78), Flowers, Johnson, Taylor; Butterfield (Penn, 90), Daniels, Williams, McAlinden; Chambers, Ironside (Thomas, 78). Subs not used: Palmer, Richards.

Spennymoor Town: Gould; Williams, Harrison, Curtis, Brogan; Chandler, Ramshaw, Henry (Hibbs, 70); Anderson (Boyes, 67), Taylor, Tuton (Hall, 80). Subs not used: Elliot, Thackray.

Referee: Benjamin Speedie.

Attendance: 1,436 (36 away fans).