It was supposed to be a double header weekend for the Harriers but this has now been halved with the expected news that the game at Bewdley has been postponed until this Tuesday due to the gently persisting rain.    With today being St Swithins Day then expect the re-scheduled game to be called off too.

So yesterday they started their mini friendly season in winning fashion with a late winner from new signing Justin Richards at Rushall Olympic.    With Iyseden Christie and Stuart Whitehead both missing from the squad after close season operations the Harriers manager Mark Yates tried to give all of the remaining squad a game along with seven triallists.

The triallists were Shane Paul ex Aston Villa and Cheltenham, Matthew Barnes-Homer ex Wycombe and Bromsgrove, John Munday - possibly ex QPR and Hayes, Colin Bell - not the Man City one??, Alex Taylor, Dan Walker and Amar Boukhalfa.

In the Olympic side was Chris Brindley, former Harriers player and also James Francis, son of Trevor and formerly of Tamworth.

Both sides struggled to get anything of note going due to the heavy pitch and this lead to Mark Creighton going off injured early on.    It's not thought to be anything too serious though.

Shane Paul came close to opening the scoring for us but was foiled by a line clearance after he rounded the Rushall keeper, Mark Gayle once of Birmingham City fame.    Gayle then pushed a shot from Boukhalfa over the bar and a few seconds later Justin Richards sliced a shot wide.

It was Richards that was to get the decisive goal just minutes from the end when he turned onto a ball supplied by Simon Russell and chipped it past Gayle into the net.


Team:
Bevan (Coleman), Bignot (Bell), Walker (Kenna), Ferrell (Hurren), Creighton (Munday), Harkness (Blackwood), Smikle (Russell), Paul (Barnes-Homer), Constable (Richards), Penn (McGrath), Taylor (Boukhalfa)