Kidderminster Harriers Supporters Team

The KHIST supporters team christened their new home ground with victory against old friends and regular opponents Oxford United at the weekend. Enjoying a rare home game manager Dave Pountney had the luxury of an 19 man squad allowing him to even loan Mike Cooper to Oxford.

The visitors started the game strongly forcing the Harriers onto the back foot with Kiddy giving the ball away far too cheaply. Gradually though Harriers started to get into the game and then took the lead through Sean Merryweather with a fine finish from the edge of the area. Sean then doubled the lead with a virtually identical finish, after finding space on the edge of the area he drilled the ball into the bottom corner.

Following changes during half time the game became more open and Kiddy were grateful to goalkeeper Dave Ackerley who made three top class saves. However the KHIST side took a three goal lead as Ben Grazier took on the Oxford defence before curling the ball into the bottom corner. At this point it was expected that tiredness would set in and Harriers would take advantage of their squad rotation and the fact that Oxford had no substitutes. But full credit to Oxford who never gave up and pulled a goal back through John Matthews with the Harriers midfield allowing Oxford far too much time on the ball. Then with five minutes to go it was Matthews who again scored to give Harriers a nervous final five minutes.

It was a good win for the Harriers against a great bunch of lads from Oxford. Rotating 19 players was always going to have an effect on the flow of the game but everybody played their part in the victory. Sean Merryweather was dominant in the middle of the park whilst on the pitch and Dave Ackerley produced a man of the match performance with a string of brilliant saves and general good handling. Next up is a trip to Weymouth where the side will be hoping to avenge last years defeat, although this may depend on how many players survive friday night!

Team : Dave Ackerley, Sean Merryweather, David Williams, Andrew Coffiled, Adam Matthews, John Wenham, Chris Price, Chris Lacey, David Greaves, Mike Cooper, Ollie Sewell, Simon Jarrasinski, Rob Hart, Mike Peplow, Tom Sharland, Ash Jarvis, Mark Young, Ben Grazier and Mark Connolly.

Scorers : Sean Merryweather 2 and Ben Grazier

MOM : David Ackerley

More Pictures from the game can be found here