The Harriers continued their return to form today when they easily disposed of a very poor Bristol Rovers side who looked destined for a place in the Conference on this form.

The Rovers started brightly and we in turn started stutteringly, our ball control and defending for the opening moves were all over the place and it looked worrying but about ten minutes the Reds started to gain the initiative and keep it.

Jan again started the game with the 4-3-3 formation and kept Adie Smith on the bench rather than drop, the again impressive, Abdou Sall.

Again it worked with Foster and Bennett whipping the ball in for Drewe and Larks to deal with. At the same time Clarkson, Stamps and Hinton were keeping it tight at the back and frustrating the Bristol forwards who were being restricted to long range efforts that didn't really trouble Brock in the Harriers goal.

The only thing that was troubling us was the inconsistencies of the referee, Paul Danson, who seemed intent on spoiling it for both sides. He seems to have some kind of superiority complex, damned if I know why, wasn't he a Premiership ref once.

After Mark Blake and Dean Bennett had tested the Rovers keeper a few times came Deano's first goal of the season, and what a screamer it was.

From Brockies goal kick Broughton played the ball on to Dean who then surged towards the Rovers goal. He then unleashed a shot from the corner of the area that simply flew into the net just inside the far post, leaving Howie for dead.

After that Rovers were never in it again.

Dean had a chance to double his tally minutes later but his volley went inches wide with the keeper beaten again.

In the last seconds of the half Scott Stamps tried to get in on the act but his strike was cleared to safety by a Rovers defender.

Harriers went in for halftime with their heads held high after a convincing first half performance.

HT. 1-0

The second half started with a substitution for Rovers, Challis came on for Jones.

Again the Reds started to dominate the game, Blake and Larkin again went close with long range efforts.

The ref was still playing silly buggers though when he gave Bristol a free kick on the edge of the box for what seemed a harmless challenge by Ian Clarkson.
Walters free kick soared, not sailed, over the bar.

Just after Mark Blake and Simon Bryant clashed heads in the middle of the park and after treatment for both players the ref made Blakie go to the touchline but allowed the Rovers player to stay on the pitch. Ludicrous!.

Just after Bryant was substituted by their manager, Gerry Francis. Blake followed soon after to be replaced with Adie Smith.

Then came Drewes third goal of the season when he ran onto a through ball from Danny Williams and for once didn't make a hash of it.
He calmly advanced on the keeper, picked his spot, and stroked it past him into the back of the net.

That was on 61 minutes and was the signal for a large number of part time Rovers fans to leave the ground with another 30 minutes to go.
Rovers would be better off without them.

For the next ten minutes Rovers tried to find a way back into the game with, first, a powerful shot from Kevin Gall and then a long range shot from Plummer but again Stuart Brock was more than equal to the task and easily kept them out.

Jan then bought on Sam Shilton for Ian Foster and the game seemed to drop down a gear with the Reds content to play it out to the end.

But even in the last minute we had a chance to make it three when Shilton pressured the keeper into losing the ball only to see his hopeful lob come back off the bar.

All in all it was another good performance from the Harriers and I think the tide has turned.

FT. 2-0