Darlington 1 Kidderminster Harriers 3 - Report
Harriers came from behind to secure their first points of the campaign with a well deserved 3-1 win at Blackwell Meadows.
Harriers manager Russ Penn named an unchanged line-up for the trip North to Darlington, the influential Cliff Moyo returned to the bench following injury.
Harriers and their hosts were both seeking their first points of the league campaign following defeats to Chester and Fylde respectively.
Darlington lost skipper Will Hatfield to a hamstring injury just 10 seconds into the fixture, spending a time to re-group as Harriers pressed ok be in the early stages.
On 10 minutes the lively Justin Donawa raced onto Tony McMahon’s through ball and his right wing centre was turned beyond his own keeper by Alex Penny.
Darlington rallied, Ben Hedley and Nick Hunt sending efforts wide and visiting keeper Luke Simpson made good saves to deny Luke Charman and McMahon.
On the half hour, much against the run of play, Harriers found themselves level, Omari Sterling turned his marker and from 25 yards curled a dipping effort over Jonny Saltmer.
This lifted Harriers, Caleb Richards saw his goal bound effort deflected for a corner before the visitors pressed home an advantage to take the lead three minutes before the break, Ashley Hemmings converting Sam Austin’s right wing cross.
After the interval Saltmer was regularly called into action producing a stunning save to deny Sterling and then keep out Taylor’s header.
Sam Austin ensured Harriers secured all three points when he ran onto a loose ball on 85 minutes curling a right footed strike into the top left corner of Jonny Saltmer’s net for the visitors first points of the campaign.
