Saturday, March 17, 2001

KIDDERMINSTER Harriers continued to live up to their growing reputation as draw specialists when they had to settle for their third successive goalless deadlock in Saturday's Nationwide League Division Three clash against relegation-threatened Darlington at Aggborough.

It denied Jan Molby's men the chance of registering their first ever Football League 'double' having beaten the Quakers 2-1 at Feethams in October.

Frustrated Kidderminster have now drawn 14 of their league matches so far this season and have figured in ten matches in all competitions which have ended goalless.

After their latest blank, Molby said: "We had a lot of chances and again the one thing that would have got us a goal was probably a bit of luck.

"We got ourselves into some great positions, especially down the flanks, to put in some decent crosses, but their two centre- halves Craig Liddle and David Brightwell defended well.

"It was a game we completely dominated, but we haven't done enough. We played four strikers, three of them up front and one in midfield, so our intentions were clear. I felt I had to do that to get through to the players that we do want to attack when we are at home.

"You can say it didn't work because we didn't score, but I thought we gave them a lot of problems.

"Maybe that little bit of quality we haven't got in the team at the moment with Andy Ducros and Neil Mackenzie missing has just cost us a little bit in the end."

Molby felt his side paid the price for failing to score during their impressive start to the match.

"But I felt from then on it wasn't going to happen," said the Aggborough chief, who was happy that his side at least created many more chances than they did the previous Tuesday against Scunthorpe at Aggborough.

Commenting on his team selection, he said he believed Harriers could play with a three-man attack because of the qualities provided by striker John Durnin, who hit both side's goals in their victory at Darlington.

"He's clever enough to find himself a bit of space. I thought if anyone was going to open them up it was John."

Molby also explained his decision to take off striker Drewe Broughton after an hour and replace him with Thomas Skovbjerg.

"Drewe is running on empty, he's a little bit tired. He's a young lad, played a lot of games and there's been a lot of pressure on him. So he felt a little bit tired and he wasn't really at the races, but we are going to get that from time to time."

During their long spells of dominance during the first- half Kidderminster's main scoring efforts came from long-range efforts from Tony Bird, Durnin, and Dean Bennett, although the best effort fell to striker Stewart Hadley.

He screwed the ball wide after latching on to a mix-up between Darlington's on-loan keeper Peter Keen and Steve Harper.

After the interval the Quakers gave Harriers defence a more testing time and in among their off-target efforts was a fierce 25-yard shot from Paul Campbell which was well tipped over the bar by goalkeeper Tim Clarke.

During the tense last few minutes Kidderminster were denied victory when an awkward volley by Durnin was well saved by goalkeeper Keen.