Saturday, January 12, 2002

KIDDERMINSTER Harriers moved into the Nationwide League Division Three play-off zone after a goal from Andy Ducros earned them a 1-0 victory over Darlington at Aggborough.

Record signing Ducros, in the starting line-up for only the sixth time this season, struck in the 53rd minute to enable seventh-placed Harriers to hit back from the 4-1 home defeat against Luton Town earlier in the week.

The victory delighted Aggborough boss Jan Molby, who said: "It was probably our biggest result of the season. It was important that we bounced back after mid-week.

"There wasn't the excitement of a Luton, a Hull or a Rochdale coming here but it was a bread and butter game and the players came through it. But there wasn't a particularly big crowd which disappointed me.

"Darlington had one chance early on when we made a mistake, but apart from that it was one-way traffic. We had some good chances and we more than deserved to win 1-0.

"Darlington again played the 4-5-1 system, put everyone behind the ball and it was up to us to create chances. We did regularly right the way through the match without ever really playing as well as we could have done.

"We have cemented our place somewhere near the top where obviously we hope we are going to be able to finish."

Molby described Ducros' match-winner as a 'great goal', adding: "It was not consistently a great performance by him but he was involved in some very important things and obviously nothing is as important as goals."

The result gave injury-hit Harriers sweet revenge for their 2-1 league defeat at Feethams in August and the 1-0 reversal they suffered against The Quakers in the first round of the FA Cup at Aggborough in November.

Darlington., who had full-back Simon Betts sent off in the 87th minute for two bookable offences, had a chance to go ahead in the tenth minute when Danny Mellanby dispossessed Lee Ayres and fired wide after wrong-footing keeper Stuart Brock, who was never severely tested following his horror show display against Luton.

The Quakers somehow managed to survive in the 37th minute when a burst of shots from Foster and Ducros twice were blocked, two of them on the line by David Brightwell.

Ducros, however, finally had his reward when his second league goal of the season was set up by an excellent through ball by Danny Williams.

Harriers created further chances with Ducros being denied a second when he forced 'keeper Andrew Collett into a splendid save.