Kidderminster Harriers Supporters Team

Santa's tame the Wombles

The KHIST fans team travelled south at the weekend to take on the AFC Wimbledon supporters team en route to Crawley and despite the scoreline just about edged a tight game with a flurry of goals in the last 15 minutes.

A mini bus of Santa's departed Kidderminster at 7am and the team were in high spirits and looking forward to some festive fun after managing to get Ebbers out of bed! All the team, apart from Scrooge Williams, entered into the spirit of the day and our hosts were left bemused upon on our arrival on the edges of Wimbledon Common.

Harriers started the game well with Mark Young and Sean Merryweather controlling the midfield but were unable to find the opening goal. Chances came and went for both sides on a very heavy pitch and it was no suprise when Kiddy took the lead in the 38th minute. Dave Pountney broke free on the left and played the ball in to Dave Greaves who cooly finished for his 8th of the season. However this spurred Wimbledon into life who soon equalised and then took the lead following some comical defending just before half time.

Despite trailing at half time and not playing well the team were still confident of getting something out of the game after coming back from 5 goals down at Dorchester earlier in the season.

Within two minutes of the restart after back pass to the Wimbledon keeper, forward Dave Pountney made his first tackle in two years to disposses to goalie and pass the ball into an empty net. The fragile Harriers defence was soon breached again to restore the Wimbledon lead and pose the question - Will the Harriers defence ever keep a clean sheet? The fox in the box Greaves soon levelled the scores again to leave the game in the balance with 20 minutes to go.

On 76 minutes Mark Young scored the decisive goal to give the Harriers a 4-3 lead. The ball was lofted high into the box and with the sun in his and the keeper's eyes the Harriers defender threw himself at the ball resulting in a goal despite protests for handball. With Wimbledon dejected and tiring the ruthless Harriers proceded to give the scoreline a flattering look with a further three goals in the last 11 minutes. Dave Greaves competed his hatrick, an Adam Matthews wonder strike and a fine free kick from Mark Young (see picture opposite).

After getting over the shock of Soupy having a shower the team of Santa's were soon back on the bus for the short trip to Crawley. Despite a dissapointing afternoon watching the first team it was onto Worcester for a Christmas drink and boogie on the evening.

It wasn't the best of performances by the fans team who once again managed to win a game despite only playing in patches of the game. The team are back in action next weekend against Exeter City supporters en route to Torquay United for the league fixture.

Team: Dave Ackerley, Mark Young, Dave Williams, Mike Peplow, Sean Merryweather, Dave Pountney, Dave Greaves, Ollie Sewell, Richard Millington, John Smith, John Wenham, Ben Grazier, Adam Matthews and Andrew Coffield.

Scorers : David Greaves 3, Mark Young 2, Dave Pountney and Adam Matthews

Man of the match: David Greaves

MORE PICTURES FROM THE DAY CAN BE FOUND HERE