Kidderminster Harriers Supporters Team

The Harrers fans team and Wags made the trip north for the annual weekend away. A party of 28 stopped on the edge of the City at York Racecourse to take in the Harriers at York City and two fans games.

Arriving at varying times in the afternoon most of the party headed for the pub to start the weekend as they meant to go on. Soupy enjoyed his annual Greavsie haircut and rumours are abound that he had a shower, but this is still to be confirmed. On the Friday night we hit the city centre and Lewis Pountney decided as he was at the Racecourse he would try and ride his car there!

With players getting in at 4am and one member of the squad being dragged into his room by his pants it was no suprise that one or two missed breakfast at 8am. Despite all this though a 20 man squad made it to the edge of the City for the annual game against the York City supporter's team.

York City Supporters 2 Harriers Fans Team 6

The game was played at a school on the outskirts of the City and it was severly affected by very strong winds and rain. With 20 players to choose from Manager Pountney again fielded one side each half.
Captain Steve Bird lost the toss which meant kicking into a very strong wind first half.

Harriers had a good chance to take lead as the ball fell to John Wenham with the goal gaping but he was unable to hit the target. York soon took the lead due to poor marking as the Harriers back three were struggling to clear their lines against the wind. The home side doubled their lead as once again Harriers were left short at the back. Not long before half time veteran Dave Williams (who should have been at the back) arrived on the edge of the area to pull an important goal back.

Kicking with the wind and arguably a stronger side in the second half Kiddy soon pinned York in their own half. It took a while but Ollie Sewell bundled the ball in and even Mark 'old man rivers' Connolly got in the act with a fine header. Paul Taylor grabbed a couple of good goals and John Wenham made ammends for earlier with a goal as the Harriers ran out comfortable winners.

Although Harriers did not play that well it was understandable following the previous nights events and better than the performance at Weymouth last year. It was a true game of two halves.

Squad - M Peplow, M Young, D Williams, L Pountney, B Caufield, D Greaves, M Connolly, O Sewell, D Ackerley, R Millington, J Smith, A Matthews, D Pountney, D Goode, C Lacey, S Bird, P Taylor, J Wenham, B Grazier and A Coffiled.

Scorers - P Taylor 2, D Williams, J Wenham, M Connolly and O Sewell.

Man of the Match - Paul Taylor

After the game the team made the trip to Bootham Crescent to cheer the Harriers in a game which was also severly affected by the winds. Once again the party hit the City centre although most were still very weary from the previous night.

Once again a few were absent from breakfast especially as the clocks went forward meaning a few only had 4 hours sleep. The team enjoyed an extra couple of hours before we made the trip to Grimsby on the way home (well sort of!) to take on their supporters team.

Grimsby Supporters Team 1 Harriers Fans Team 3

An 18 man squad made it to the coast for our first ever game against Grimsby. We were given a few beers upon arrival by the Grimsby lads, as if we needed topping up!, which proved what a great set of lads and hosts they turned out to be.

We lent our hosts Mark Young in goal who suprisingly recovered from being carried off the previous day!
Again Kiddy rotated the large squad and in a very open game both teams had chances to take the lead in the first 20 minutes.

With the wags cheering on in the sunshine John Wenham and Steve Bird, a fine finish from the edge of the area, gave the Harriers a commanding 2-0 half time lead. Changing the team around at half time affected the Harriers and were a touch fortunate when Dave Goode scored with a header. Grimsby pulled a deserved goal back towards the end but Harriers held on for the win.

It was a game played in a great spirit against a fantastic set of lads and we hope to give them a game again soon. Although Harriers didn't play well again its maybe understandable if you had seen the players at 4am.

Squad - M Peplow, M Young, L Pountney, B Caufield, D Greaves, M Connolly, O Sewell, D Ackerley, R Millington, J Smith, D Pountney, D Goode, C Lacey, S Bird, P Taylor, J Wenham, B Grazier and A Coffiled.

Scorers - S Bird, D Goode and J Wenham

Man of the Match - Chris Lacey

* I apologise for any innacuracies but i really can't remember!

More pictures from the weekend can be found here