ASSISTANT boss Gary Barnett confessed Kidderminster Harriers have had to "grin and bear it" after their FA Cup preparations were thrown into turmoil this week.

Harriers go into Friday evening's first round tie at Port Vale hoping to put their miserable League Two form behind them.

But as if being without a manager and half a dozen key players was not bad enough, they have been plunged into a desperate search for a goalkeeper.

On-loan stopper Ben Foster was supposed to be lining up for Harriers at Vale Park, but the youngster will now be in a different part of the Potteries.

An injury to Stoke number one Ed De Goey has seen them employ a 24-hour recall clause in Foster's loan deal to take him back to the Britannia Stadium as cover.

With John Danby set to have the cast taken off his broken toe next week and understudy Daniel Lewis still suffering from broken fingers, caretaker boss Shaun Cunnington has been wearing the keeper's jersey in training.

"You find yourself thinking it can't get any worse but if you think that it invariably will," said Barnett. "Losing Ben Foster is another blow to us but you've just got to grin and bear it.

"We've just got to come out fighting and that's what we've been telling the players."

One positive to come out of Aggborough this week is that all of their loan players, Shaun Cooper, James Keene and Darryn Stamp, have been given clearance by their clubs to play in the FA Cup tie.

But Lee Jenkins and Ian Foster will have to play through the pain barrier after respective missing training with back and knee complaints.

On the longer-term injury front, Iyseden Christie and Micky Mellon have been booked in to see specialists after successful operations last week, while Simon Brown is making steady progress with the physios at West Bromwich Albion.

Kidderminster's search for a new manager to succeed Jan Molby has begun in earnest and the board of directors are due to meet to consider a shortlist of candidates at the end of next week.

With chairman Colin Youngjohns away on holiday, vice-chairman Barry Norgrove has been sifting through the applications.

"We've received a substantial number of inquiries for the vacant position, which, along with Shaun's name, we are now in the process of considering.

"The board will meet at the end of next week to decide which direction the club wishes to with regards to the appointment of a first team manager.

"In the meantime we urge all of our fans to continue giving Shaun and his players their full backing ahead of what is a very important cup tie on Friday evening," added Norgrove.

Harriers are believed to have received around 50 applications for the job of rescuing them from relegation from the Football League.

Wolves' goalscoring legend Steve Bull is the latest to throw his name into the hat while former Walsall boss Chris Nicholl and ex-Mansfield chief Stuart Watkiss have also been mentioned in connection with the vacancy.

Meanwhile, deflated Dean Keates has called for an instant response from the Aggborough dressing room after last weekend's dismal 4-0 home defeat to Boston.

He said: "We've let ourselves down, the fans down and Barney (assistant boss Gary Barnett) and Shaun (Cunnington) down," he said."We've only got ourselves to blame. We're the ones who go over that white line and we've put ourselves in a crisis now.

"Those kind of performances have been the story of our season and there's only one thing we've shown consistency in, letting people down. We've got to put it right soon."

Harriers round-up -- Page 102