You would be forgiven for thinking that Kidderminster Harriers were a rugby club with our fourth game against Northwich Victoria this season.    Thankfully we don't normally play the same team four times in one season, it's just that we have already played them twice in recent weeks due to the FA Trophy and we also played them at Victoria Park at the start of the campaign.

We'll never forget those joyous scenes from the travelling Red Army when we lost by 3-2 but went through to the Final at Wembley on May 12th - now confirmed.    It's hard to believe we actually lost that day, it feels as if it was us that had won.

Since that second leg game neither side have been having much luck.    Northwich did beat Exeter City in their next game but then got hammered 4-0 at home by fellow strugglers Cambridge Utd followed by a 2-1 defeat at Morecambe on Tuesday night.

We have collected the same amount of points as Northwich but ours have all come in the form of draws and some very poor draws at that.    First we went to Tamworth on a bitterly cold night and managed to bore the pants off everyone there then we went to St Albans last Saturday, let in a dodgy goal and got two players sent off.

One of those sending's off was for Stuart Whitehead and that has since been rescinded in a case of mistaken identity by the ref and instead the FA have given the second yellow to new signing Glenn Wilson instead.    It's extremely lucky that we didn't give another goal away following the dismissal of Whitehead.    Would the FA have awarded us the point we could have lost?

Last Tuesday night we turned in a better performance in drawing at home to Burton Albion but again there were no goals and it looks as if we have gone back to the start of the season when we kept trying to walk the ball into the net.

That dearth of goals ended when we bought in James Constable on loan from Walsall and the goals that he scored, along with igniting Iyseden Christie's goal scoring, took us on a great run to get us to the edge of the play-offs.    Constables goals now seem to have dried up, along with Christie's, and we certainly won't see any goals from him against Northwich because he was the other one sent off at St Albans.

Also missing for us tomorrow will be Andy Ferrell after he was sent back to Hereford Utd with a hamstring injury that could see him miss the remainder of the season.    By all accounts he was one of our best players at St Albans and it's a shame that we couldn't have seen more of him.

Our other injury concerns Scott Bevan but he's now back in training following a calf injury received when we played Northwich in the first leg of the Trophy semis three weeks ago.    Steve Taylor has deputised for him while he's been out and one can't say that Taylor has been an outstanding success.    His mistakes led to Northwich's first two goals in the second leg and a glaring error led the the St Albans goal last Saturday.

On to Northwich then and news from up there suggests that there might soon be a club up for sale with the, as yet, un-confirmed talk of the Chairman selling up to FC United, Witton Albion, or to a housing developer.

Whatever, it shouldn't affect the game tomorrow and I fully expect us to send them back home pointless


Harriers from:
Bevan, S Taylor, Harkness, Kenna, Haworth, Creighton, Whitehead, McGrath, Sedgemore, Hurren, Russell, Penn, Reynolds, Blackwood, McGhee, Smikle, Christie, Hay, Brady, Wilson.

Northwich from:
Senior, Connett, Battersby, Elliot, Griffiths, Charnock, Mayman, Carr, Brayson, Roca, Payne, Byrne, Brown, McCarthy, Townson, Williams, Rutter, Smith, Gallimore, Warburton, Barwick, Dean, Beaumont, Roberts, Smart, Shaw.