At last a bit of good news came out of Aggborough today when Matt Barnes-Homer agreed to a new two year contract after being linked with Oxford Utd for the past two weeks.  His signing should be the first of the remaining out of contract players yet to sign for a further spell.  Later this week Brian Smikle is expected to sign for a further year.

Matty, who joined the Harriers in July 2007, had his best spell with us last season when he became joint top scorer with the now departed Justin Richards.  Between them they scored forty two goals to become our best strike partnership since the Davies/Casey era.

Now he's hoping to become part of an even better side next season after telling the official website that we should be able to build on what remains of last seasons squad:

"Hopefully we'll have a good group of the players that were here last season and there's a good spirit and bond here - and all credit goes to the Manager for that.
He and Neil had a big part to play in things and I met with them a lot and they said a lot of good things that helped make up my mind to stay here.
The Chairman has done his bit in helping to agree terms and make sure the deal happened.  This club is as big as any other in the Conference and I'm happy to stay."

Matt will also remain as the Harriers Online sponsored player for a third season.

Other not so good news was Adam Bartlett's expected departure from the club after it had been hoped that he would be changing his mind about staying with us.  Today he signed for local rivals Hereford Utd just as Keith Lowe did a month ago.

You feel that it wasn't quite the move that he was really looking for.