Monday, April 16, 2001

KIDDERMINSTER Harriers registered their biggest win since being promoted to the Football League with yesterday's 3-0 Division Three triumph over Plymouth Argyle at Aggborough.

Harriers had sealed the points by half-time thanks to well taken-goals from Stewart Hadley, Neil Mackenzie and Thomas Skovbjerg.

For delighted Kidderminster it was sweet revenge for the 4-0 hammering they suffered at Home Park in January.

Following Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Chesterfield, boss Jan Molby rang the changes drafting Scott Stamps, Dean Bennett, Daire Doyle, Skov-bjerg and Mackenzie into the starting line-up at the expense of Ian Clarkson, Mark Shail, Paul Webb, John Durnin and Andy Corbett.

Craig Hinton, who took over the captaincy duties from unwell Clarkson, said afterwards: "It seemed to click for us. You have seen it coming over the last few games. We needed a bit of luck. We got that, but I think we deserved the win."

Molby, whose decision to push midfielder Andy Du-cros up front to partner Hadley worked well, said: "It was nice to get three goals in the first-half, but it would have been good to have added a few more in the second.

"The pleasing thing was that for the full 90 minutes, apart from the one scare when they had a goal disallowed for off-side, we gave Plymouth nothing.

"Chesterfield outclassed us on Saturday and it was similar to how much we outclassed Plymouth from start to finish."

Kidderminster struck after five minutes through the impressive Hadley who scored with a brave header following a long goal-kick by Tim Clarke.

Hadley almost added a second ten minutes later as the Pilgrims struggled to keep Molby's men at bay.

Paul Wotton had a 'goal' disallowed for Plymouth, but it was not long before Harriers made it 2-0 in the 21st minute when an unsel-fish pass by Ducros enabled Mackenzie to side-foot the ball into the roof of the net from 10 yards.

Harriers cruised into a 3-0 lead a couple of minutes before half-time when Ducros and Hadley combined to set up the chance for Skovbjerg to score with a powerful drive from 16 yards.

It was his first Football League goal and a richly deserved reward for his long fightback to fitness following cruciate knee ligament damage.

Plymouth continued to play second fiddle after the break, but at least they managed to stem to flow.

That was mainly due to keeper Jon Sheffield pulling off a couple of smart saves to thwart substitute Corbett and Hadley in the space of two minutes.

The Pilgrims also survived a close range effort from Hadley which hit the post in the 75th minute.

Kidderminster: Clarke 6, Stamps 7, Hinton 7, Smith 7, Bennett 7, Skovbjerg 7 (Corbett, 55, 6), Medou-Otye 7, Ducros 8 (Durnin, 74, 6), H Hadley 9, Mackenzie 7, Doyle 7 (Davies, 74, 6). Subs (not used): Brock, Webb.

Attendance: 3,321.