Kidderminster Harriers Supporters Team

The KHIST fans team travelled to Oldbury on Bank Holiday Monday to take on the West Bromwich Albion supporters team en route to Tamworth. After a break of seven weeks the Harriers took on one of the best sides in the country in the IFA supporters cup.

A 19 man squad descended on Birchley Sports and Social Club with director of football Dave Pountney taking control in the absence of manager Mark Connolly due to illness. Despite missing a few key players KHIST were still able to raise a strong side which included Kidderminster Harriers legend Dean Bennett who made his second appearance for the fans team.

Harriers started strongly with the midfield pairing of Merryweather and Bennett winning plenty of the ball on a sticky pitch. For the first 20 minutes KHIST pinned Albion back into their half without really threatening to score whilst the Albion looked very dangerous on the break. It was the lively Greaves who got the first goal after a good cross from Alex Withers was converted at close range under the body of the Albion keeper.

West Brom soon came back into the game and Harriers were grateful to goalkeeper Dave Ackerley who produced a couple of good saves and good handling to keep the scores level. However the centre defensive partnership of Ollie Sewell and Dave Goode remained solid and the score remained 1-0 Harriers at half time.

After the break Kiddy again started strongly and got the decisive second goal after Pete Lewis crossed for top scorer Dave Greaves to turn and volley into the bottom corner in style to cue the celebrations. With Harriers rotating the side and Albion now playing three up front the next goal was all important. Despite enjoying more posession Albion only tested Brett Caufield in goal from distance with Dave Greaves and Ryan Cooper looking dangerous on the break for Harriers.

However it was KHIST who scored again when the influential Merryweather followed up a rebound to win the tie for Harriers. This finished any hopes of a Boing comeback and debutant Marc Stones could have added to the scoreline late on.

So KHIST progress to the last 16 of the IFA supporters cup and will travel to Bury in the next round. Everyone played their part in Harriers best performance of the season against one of the strongest supporters teams around who had reached the cup final the previous two seasons.

Man of the Match - Sean Merryweather

Scorers - Dave Greaves 2 and Sean Merryweather

Team and Ratings

Ian Danby, Dave Greaves (9), Alex Withers (8), Ben Grazier (8), Dave Ackerley (8),
Brett Caufield (7), John Wenham (8), Mark Young (8), Ollie Sewell (8), Dave Goode (9),
Sean Merryweather (9), Dean Bennett (9), Mitchell Pearce (8), Marc Stones (7), Andy Powell (8), Simon Clarke (7), Ryan Cooper (7), Pete Lewis (8), Dave Pountney and Tom Hudson.

More pictures can be found here