Jack Byrne saves the Harriers skins

Gary Whild saw his 100% home record as Kidderminster Harriers manager come to an end as his team struggled to a draw against Southport.

In a turgid game, the first half was notable not for the chances created (of which there were very few for either team) but for the inability to retain possession in order to create them.  There was little to talk about in the first twenty minutes or so of the match, barring a few early headers wide from Harriers corners.  The first real efforts of the match came when Jamie Grimes flung himself to block a Southport shot in the penalty area, shortly before Anthony Malbon teed up a shot at the other end of the pitch which was forced just wide by a deflection.

Southport eventually opened the scoring after twenty seven minutes; Mickey Demetriou allowed them far too much space down the left hand side and, although he managed to rectify his mistake with a tackle, an unlucky bounce fell to a Southport player who passed it across the face of the goal to allow Danny Hattersley an easy finish.

Southport soon had the chance for a second after a defensive mix-up, when defending a free-kick, saw Lee Vaughan lose his man, Osayamen Osawe, but fortunately the winger fluffed his shot allowing Danny Lewis an easy save.

Harriers had an opportunity to level before half time when a bouncing ball fell to Michael Gash in the penalty area, but the time taken for the ball to drop to him allowed Southport's defence to organise and block his eventual shot.

Half time came and Kidderminster trailed after a poor half which was perhaps most entertaining for a large scuffle that saw two Southport men and Josh Gowling enter the referee's book.  The Reds needed to perform a lot better.

As always happens with Harriers attacking towards their own fans in the second half, they were able to create a lot more chances but still struggled to put together any real threatening periods of play.  Early in the half some excellent work on the left hand side by Anthony Malbon allowed him to get past a defender and cut the ball back into the box for an excellent chance on goal, however a poor touch by Gash saw the ball cleared.

Shortly afterwards he was forced to rue a bad day for himself when he mishit a shot from the penalty spot after being set up expertly by a low Lee Vaughan cross.

Southport looked a team that were there for the taking, and on recent form Harriers would have fancied themselves to beat them, however some turgid passing was again affecting their ability to create chances.  Jack jack Byrne twice saw long shots beat the Southport 'keeper but narrowly miss the target but his luck was soon to change.

Malbon did really well to keep the ball in play and prevent a throw in, finding the overlapping Mickey Demetriou as he did so, allowing him to put in a cross which was punched away by the Southport goalkeeper.  Byrne ran onto the rebound and, this time, was able to hit his shot sweetly enough to see it nestle inside the post to equalise.

With many of the fans thinking that this would allow Kidderminster to go on and win the game the failure to penetrate came back to haunt them with only one more real chance as Amari Morgan-Smith broke into the penalty box and smashed a low shot across the goal, unfortunately missing the target.

When the game went to injury time there was still time enough for one more Southport effort to steal the three points.  A late free-kick was cleared poorly by the Harriers defence and a David Fitzpatrick shot caused worry as it rattled against the inside of the post but bounced out harmlessly.

Full time and points were shared and that saw the Harriers drop back out of the play off places thanks to wins for Barnet, Grimsby and Gateshead who all leapt above us in the table.  We'll need to play better than this one day and hopefully that'll come at Salisbury next Saturday.

 Goal for Harriers: Byrne 77
 Goal for Southport: Hattersley 27

REFEREE:

Mr C Hicks Surrey