Harriers finished their pre-season friendly programme this evening with a 2-1 defeat of Doc Martens side Halesowen Town.

Jan started with what many thought would be the starting line-up this coming Saturday, with the surprising inclusion of Ben Davies.

The game took off at a pace, Tony Bird took the game by the scruff of the neck and almost opened the scoring within five minutes of the start when his blistering shot cannoned off the top right hand corner.

Two minutes later the scoring did open when Birdie again homed in on the goal but finding his way blocked laid it off superbly for Ducros to smash it past ex Harrier Tim Clarke in the Halesowen goal.

The game then followed a pattern of continuous pressure from the Harriers without any addition to the score, although we could have added at least three but the chances weren't taken.

The second half was a scrappy affair redeemed only by another early goal for the Reds, this time squeezed in from a narrow angle by Sam Shilton.

Most of the rest of this half was pretty boring, only coming to life when the handbags came out.

Halesowen claimed a consolation goal through Dennis Bailey, although according to the announcer he had been subbed early in the first half??.

Harriers:
Brock, Medou-Otye, Stamps (Joy), Blake, Hinton, Smith, Bird (Doyle), Davies (Bennett), Hadley, Ducros (Foster), Shilton.