You might be forgiven for thinking that the FA Cup game against the Wolves is this weekend but it's not.  We still have a couple of weeks of League action to get through first.

Games against York City and Bristol Rovers are must win games in our effort to climb the table although the game at fellow 3rd rounders Yeovil on Boxing Day will be a bit harder to win.  First up though are Leyton Orient tomorrow.

This will also be a tough game to call now that they have started to put some results together.

At the start of the season I had them down as one of my choices for relegation.  It hurt me to say that because I have a couple of good friends that support the O's so I'm glad to see them picking up some points now.  But not this Saturday.

Their exit from the Cup was controversial to say the least when their promising young keeper, Glenn Morris, was sent off at Cheltenham for supposedly pulling down Damien Spencer after Spencer had charged straight through him.  They went on to lose the game 3-1 in the end and with it a chance to play Premiership Fulham back in London.

Morris was the lad who single handedly beat the Harriers in the final game of last season with probably the finest goalkeeping display seen in my memory.  This lad is without doubt the best keeper in the 3rd Division by a long chalk and why he hasn't been poached by a bigger club is a mystery.

Orient will be hoping to wipe out the memory of last week by inflicting defeat on us but they'll have to do it without the services of Greg Heald (double hernia), Simon Downer (hamstring) and Dave McGhee (ankle).  They've been out for some time now and won't be back until the New Year at the very least.

These are all central midfield players and Orient have had to introduce one of their youth team players in recent weeks.  17yr old Gabriel Zakuani has blended in well and like Morris looks to have a bright future.

Upfront they will be relying on Gary Alexander and Lee Thorpe for the goals but hopefully our defenders will be too strong for them.


It's been a torrid time at Aggborough Towers this week with all the fuss about ticket prices for the big game and it's tended to deflect the interest from this game.  So much so that nobody seems interested in the fact that the new players we were promised by Jan have yet to materialise.

There has been talk of Lee Jenkins and Jonathon Coates from Swansea but that's all it is, talk.  Jenkins could be a good signing but he's hardly the 'leader of men' that we were promised.  Coates is despised by many Swansea fan's and there must be a reason for that so maybe we should take their advice and look elsewhere.

The other rumour concerns the Tamworth striker, Scott Rickards, but I think we're being given the run round by Tamworth regarding this player and again I think we should steer clear.

There have been a few injuries in the Harriers camp this week.  Kenny Coleman (calf muscle), Sean Parrish (stomach), Bo Henriksen (hamstring) and John Danby (quad muscle) have all been having treatment and will face late fitness tests.

It's up to the rest of the team to take this new found upsurge of feeling into this game and make sure that we come away with all three points.  As Shrewsbury showed us it's no good having a good Cup run and then getting yourself relegated.

STOP PRESS: The club have signed two of the above mentioned players.
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Teams

Harriers from:
Brock, Danby, Stamps, Gadsby, Hatswell, Burton, Coleman, Smith, Hinton, D Williams, Parrish, Bennett, Betts, Ward, Shilton, Henriksen, White, J Williams, Heath.

Orient from:
Morris, Harrison, Barnard, W Jones, Joseph, Lockwood, Miller, Zakauni, Hunt, Newey, Peters, Hammond, Brazier, Ibehre, Saah, Toner, Alexander, Purser, Tate, Thorpe.