Saturday, March 3, 2001

FUMING Kidderminster Harriers boss Jan Molby blasted his players after they slumped to their biggest defeat of the season in Saturday's 5-1 Nationwide Division League Three hammering at Blackpool.

"We chucked in the towel right from the word go," said Molby, whose shell-shocked side fell victim to a hat-trick from the Seasiders on-song striker John Murphy.

It was the second time this season promotion-chasing Blackpool have embarrassed Harriers, having won 4-1 at Aggborough in September.

Kidderminster could again have no complaints about the final outcome following a performance which left Molby understandably angry and bitterly disappointed.

He said: "We have given Blackpool everything we could possibly give them. Every time we had the ball we gave it straight back to them. We presented them with easy goals and if you do that you are never going to get anything from a game.

"I hope my players are as embarrassed and disappointed as I am. I hope they are going to do something about it tomorrow when we play Lincoln because I certainly am.

"I know that the fans who came to Blackpool in their numbers would be very disappointed as well because we chucked in the towel really right from the word go. Everything was unacceptable."

Molby admitted there were no positive aspects to come out of the game, but added: "You probably felt at the start of the second half if anyone was going to score it was going to be us.

"But we conceded two quick goals and both of them could have been avoided easily."

"The surface wasn't great, but Blackpool played some good football on it. It wasn't about football, though, it was about competing. We didn't compete and too many of our players didn't want to do the horrible work which has to be done."

Blackpool, managed by Molby's ex-Liverpool team-mate Steve McMahon, paved the way for a sixth home win on the trot when Murphy headed in a perfect cross from Danny Coid.

Six minutes later, however, Coid turned villain when he turned a Neil Mackenzie cross into his own net.

Murphy restored Blackpool's lead in the 26th minute when Brian Reid and Paul Simpson set up the chance for him to score with an angled shot from just inside the box.

A promising spell from Harriers early in the second- half quickly fizzled out when the Seasiders grabbed two quick goals. The first, in the 61st minute, arrived when Rick Wellens finished off a through ball from Simpson.

Three minutes later Wellens was fouled by Craig Hinton and Murphy completed his hat-trick when he hammered in the resultant penalty.

Kidderminster's misery was complete in the 85th minute when Brett Ormerod made it 5-1.

On the bench for Harriers was Thomas Skovbjerg, part of another step towards his return to first team football after being sidelined for nearly a year with cruciate knee ligament damage.