The Harriers will be taking a step back into history when we entertain the Pride of Worcestershire, Bromsgrove Rovers, in the 2nd rd of the WS Cup at Aggborough tomorrow evening.  At one time both sides were of equal status competing in the Vauxhall Conference for many years.

This all changed in season 1996-97.  A year that saw Rovers relegated from the Conference.

Years of turmoil followed and they dropped down as far as the Midland Alliance in 2000.  This was coupled with boardroom problems that saw the club have succession of people in charge and the administrators called in.  Tom Herbert is now in charge and with him came a new period of stability on the field with the club clawing their way back up the pyramid.  They now lead the Dr Martens league and are hoping to join the DM Premier next season but that is as far as they can go until they get their new ground.

This is still being discussed at council level and looks a long way off.

They have quite a few well known ex Harriers in their ranks and I hope they'll be made welcome by the home fans.

Their most recent ex Harrier was Parfait Medou-Otye but he only managed 25 minutes playing time and has now been released by the club.

Other faces are:

Neil Cartwright.

Steve Pope.

Les Palmer.

Stewart Brighton.

Richard Burgess.

Jon Ford (manager)

Gary Hackett.

We have thinned out our squad again this week and again it's a defender that has been released.  After saying goodbye to Mark Blake and Ian Joy we now lose Scott Lower.

The reason given by Ian Britton was because he felt he needed to have first team football but when he has played in the first team here, pre-season and at Nottm Forest he has impressed.  It just seems another strange decision.

It's not known if Drewe Broughton will be playing tomorrow because the club have classed this game as a reserve team fixture.  What reserve team??

It would make more sense to call it a first team game and then Drewe would be able to play against Bury on Saturday.

It should be our first chance a have a look at John Hodge in this game and also Inderpaul Khela should be making an appearance, but no Scott Stamps though.

Matt Lewis has now finished his loan spell at Bath City and should figure in the action.

I wonder if Abdou Sall will be hanging around.

Teams

Harriers from:
Brock, Danby, Coleman, Melligan, Ayres, Smith, Hinton, Williams, Parrish, Sall, Flynn, Bennett, Shilton, Foster, Bishop, Hodge, Henriksen, Khela, Lewis.

Bromsgrove from:
Thomas, Brookes, Danks, Hackett, Ford, C Taylor, Southwick, Dyson, Crisp, McHugh, Palmer, Lowe, Burgess, Cartwright, Frost, S Taylor, Clifton, Pope, Collins, Read.