The Harriers moved into the Semi Final of the Worcester Senior Cup last night after a stunning hat trick from new signing Michael Carr put paid to the hopes of Stourbridge Town in meeting Redditch Utd in the next round.

Thanks to Pershore Harrier for this match report.


In recent weeks Harriers performances in the league have been particularly disappointing and to an extent this has been mirrored by our performances in the last few seasons in this County Competition.

The Harriers midfield has come in for close scrutiny as our league performances have stalled yet it was somewhat surprising to see us set up in a 4-5-1 formation last night at Stourbridge.

In mild, dry conditions we lined up with Coleman, Smikle, Costello, Jones, Baker, Insall, Penn, Hayward, Carr, McDermott, Ingram all kicking up the slope in the first half.

Our first goal came from some good work down the right hand side involving Smikle and Insall who drove to the goal line before pulling the ball back for Carr to finish at the near post.  Our midfield was looking extremely lively with good incisive passing to feet and switching the ball well as we attacked through the centre and down both wings.  A good run just before half time saw Smikle take the ball from wide and into the centre of the penalty area where his shot rebounded off the keeper for Carr to collect his second of the evening.

The second half saw us maintaining our dominance in the midfield with the hard working Ingram being well supported by good midfield runs.  Further excellent work by the pacey Insall created a goal scoring chance for Ingram who seeing his effort saved by the keeper was rewarded by Carr putting the ball away for his hat-trick.

This was a good overall performance by Harriers and much needed before the visit of Eastbourne.  Whilst I expect few, if any, of the WSC squad to make a start on Saturday this was a quality performance by our team in all areas and I hope will lift the general spirits in the camp.

Credit should go to our Youth team players who contributed well to this game and our first team squad who played alongside them in a co-ordinated unit.

Next up are Redditch and a similar effort to that seen at Stourbridge will carry us through to WSC glory.

Harriers:
Dean Coleman, Zac Costello, Lee Baker, Brian Smikle (Michael Hyde 83), Michael Carr, Miles Jones, David McDermott (Awale Jiumale 66), Jamie Insall (Matt Grainger 85), Nick Ingram, Russell Penn, Nathan Hayward.