Saturday, November 13, 1999

MARK Druce grabbed a hat-trick as Kidderminster Harriers stepped up their Nationwide Conference title challenge with a 5-0 demolition of Southport at Aggborough.

Rene Petersen also scored twice as Harriers raced to their biggest win so far this season.

It was the sixth victory in their last seven home matches and leaves them just six points behind table-topping Kingstonian with two precious matches in hand.

Afterwards former Hereford United campaigner Druce said: "It was my first hat-trick since I don't know when, but it was a good team performance and somebody had to score. It just happened to be me."

Manager Jan Molby recalled Stewart Hadley to play alongside Druce and the move paid healthy dividends with Southport having no answer to Harriers' constant attacks.

Druce, now Kidderminster's leading scorer with six goals, said: "Stewart up front took a bit of the pressure off. With two up front it gives you an extra man to share the work load.

"But we don't fear anyone in this league, particularly at home. I'm pretty confident we would beat most teams here.

"We were delighted a half-time with the way it went and we just had to keep it going. We had a bit of a dodgy spell for 10-15 minutes at the start of the second half when, if they had got one, it would have made it different.

"But Rene broke away and scored and from then on it was all over really."

Deadly Druce pushed Southport on to the slippery slope when he headed home a cross from Thomas Skovbjerg after 22 minutes.

It was 2-0 in the 34th minute when a cross from Paul Webb was handled inside the area by Kevin Formby and Petersen smashed the spot kick into the net despite a brave attempt to save by goalkeeper Steve Dickinson.

Once Harriers had settled down again after the interval they continued to put Southport under pressure, and in the 63rd minute Petersen broke away to calmly slot the ball past Dickinson.

From then on Kidderminster tightened their stranglehold and in the 72nd minute Druce scored with another header, this time following a cross from substitute Phil King.

He completed the rout six minutes from time when he scored with a close range shot on the turn.

He said: " It could have all gone wrong with the England game being on and not many people turning up. But in the end it was a good crowd and the lads stuck to it, kept their minds on the job."