THE fickle nature of football fans will be highlighted on Saturday when Kidderminster Harriers face Macclesfield Town in a bread-and-butter Nationwide League Division Three clash at Aggborough.

The former Conference rivals are two of the poorest supported clubs in the Football League and for Harriers it will be a case of plunging back down to earth following Saturday's lofty 3,787 gate for ex-boss Jan Molby's return with Hull City.

It was by far Kidderminster's best attendance of the season, which before then had averaged 2,455.

Macclesfield attract lower average crowds than Harriers and last Saturday had only 1,941 spectators for their 2-0 home win over Boston United.

Such statistics make grim reading for concerned officials of both clubs -- and particularly Kidderminster's chairman Colin Youngjohns.

He warns that hard-up Harriers' low pulling power underlines the 'magnitude of our task in attempting to balance the books.'

One saving grace recently, however, has been former Aggborough sharp-shooter Lee Hughes' return to West Bromwich Albion from Coventry City with Kidderminster having now received all the money due from sell-on clauses.

Youngjohns said: "This has given us a little breathing space and some time in which to introduce further restructuring." He also stresses that the club's cost-cutting measures earlier this year 'are having a positive effect on our current economic performance.'

Youngjohns added: "Reducing our overheads to within the confines of our income has to remain our core strategy as we pursue our aim of securing the club's future and providing a solid performance from which to launch a further push up the football ladder.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict that significant changes in the way football clubs are run, and in the way the game is structured, are not far away.

"It's our intention that when that day arrives Kidderminster Harriers FC will be a 'lean, mean, machine' fully capable of dealing successfully with any problem, either on or off the pitch."

Meanwhile, Harriers' scheduled Division Three trip to play Bury at Gigg Lane on Saturday, December 28, has been put back 24 hours.