A day to forget
It's been one of those days at Aggborough when the world and his wife seems to be against you.
Firstly, around lunchtime, we had the expected statement from the club regarding the recent outbreak of yobbery at games, both home and away. Against Cheltenham at the beginning of the month there were numerous arrests of idiots in town and on Comberton Hill. These idiots, resplendent in their market stall fake Burberry and Stone Island wear, met on the station and then took their behaviour to various pubs in the area but were dealt with by the police.
They next surfaced at Notts County where two were arrested for public disorder offences and then finally at the game at home to Rushden they tried their best to spoil the game for true supporters by throwing coins at the Rushden keeper Luke Shearer.
This was the worst offence so far and could see the club fined for their stupidity. Luckily by releasing the statement today it distances themselves from the events that took place and makes clear what stance will be taken if this kind of behaviour continues.
"The club is saddened to have to take this course of action but feels it is absolutely necessary under the circumstances. Any incidents of misbehaviour at any games where supporters are associating themselves with that of Kidderminster Harriers invariably means the club has to increase the police and stewarding presence inside the stadium, at a substantial financial cost to the club.
Kidderminster Harriers takes very seriously ANY instances of misbehaviour in or around Aggborough Stadium or that of any other the club is a visitor to.
The club would like to take this opportunity to re-iterate the most severe form of punishment available will be taken against anyone found guilty of any further offences."
As I said, this does not mean the matter is now closed. We now wait to see what will happen in two weeks time.
The next bit of bother that came out was the club, and Notts County, have been told that they will be charged by the FA for the fighting between both sets of players during the latter stages of the game at Meadow Lane.
This was a result of an over the top tackle by County's Phil Bolland and led to Bolland and Tom Bennett getting yellow carded. There was another flare up minutes later when the County keeper Deeney and Johnny Mullins clashed leading to the dismissal of the keeper and a yellow card for the on loan Reading youngster.
Both clubs have been charged under rule E22a - failing to ensure that its players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion - and have until 30th March to respond to the charge.
The final straw came later on tonight when it emerged that someone at the club made an administrative error when the Portsmouth trainee, James Keene, came here on loan in October last year.
At the time of his original signing he came in on work experience but this was then changed when Portsmouth made him sign a contract with them after he had only been here a week. It looks like the error was caused by the fact that Keene was signed under certain terms but this was not updated when he signed a legal contract.
The fine for appearances against Bristol Rovers and Chester City was £6000. Stupid money and money that we can ill afford.
The club have refused to say who was responsible for the error and rightfully so but will Portsmouth be paying some of the fine. After all it was they who, in effect, changed the terms of the contract.
So that's 6K today plus 1K? for the County incident and another 1K? for the hooliganism? Hmmmnnn!
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