Saturday, October 20, 2001

THE alarm bells are ringing loud and clear at Aggborough after Kidderminster Harriers slipped to within two points of the Division Three basement after a 1-0 defeat at Carlisle United.

Harriers failed to score a goal for the eighth time this season and against a side who were stranded at the bottom of the table before Saturday's victory.

The result was particularly disappointing as Jan Molby's men had been on a three-match unbeaten run and were starting to look more confident away from home.

But they failed to trouble Carlisle keeper Peter Keen anywhere near enough and conceded a bad goal to striker Richie Foran from a 49th minute corner.

With Harriers 19th and so near to the last spot, they will need to find the goal touch in time for Tuesday's home match with York City.

Assistant boss Gary Barnett insisted: "If we had been brave enough like the last 20 minutes to play football, we possibly could have got something out of the game.

"We possibly left it too late. We just didn't get our passing game going early enough. It's a problem the lads are working very hard at and are trying to be positive.

"Balls are going into the box and we haven't got the desire to get on the end of it. But we know we have the characters who can get goals and the players with the ability to get them.

"It was a poor goal from our point of view. We have given the ball away and then lost concentration from the following corner.

"Every game is a difficult one and every game is a massive one in this league. York is very important to us on Tuesday night."

Harriers, with three clean sheets in a row behind them, seemed to start confidently at Brunton Park.

Colin Larkin was a real menace early on and he escaped down the right within

the second minute before pulling the ball back for Tony Bird to side-foot wide from six yards.

However, competitive target-man Drewe Broughton was hit by a booking on only six minutes after several heavy challenges.

Although Broughton headed narrowly wide four minutes later, the yellow card restricted his impact on the game.

Carlisle were able to find their way back into the match and had a Steve Soley header disallowed for offside on 21 minutes.

But they should have taken the lead eight minutes later when Soley released Foran only for the Irish striker to fire weakly at advancing veteran keeper Eric Nixon.

However, the home side grabbed the only goal four minutes into the second period after terrible marking from Harriers.

Peter Murphy's driven left-wing corner flew across the danger zone for an unmarked Foran to net an easy header from six yards.

It was the first goal Nixon had conceded in his third game of a non-contract spell and he then saw a superb Soley volley strike the outside of his post soon after.

The onus was on Harriers to attack but the only action for Keen was to tip away an 18-yard effort from substitute Ian Foster as the visitors reverted to a 4-3-3 formation.

Skipper Mark Blake and Broughton sent headers wide as the full-time whistle left Harriers stuck on just six Division Three goals this season.