Tuesday, September 13, 2000.

KIDDERMINSTER Harriers were left kicking themselves all the way home after failing to cash in against a Southend side down to ten men for the final 39 minutes of last night's match.

In the end they had to settle for a share of the points following their 1-1 Nationwide Division Three draw.

Harriers were in almost total command until home midfielder Kevin Maher's sending off turned the game on its head.

Maher was dismissed by Leicester referee Paul Danson for a foul on Dean Bennett, his second bookable offence, and it seemed to pump life into a Southend team which, up until then, had lacked inspiration.

Suddenly it was Kidderminster who were pushed back to repel a non- stop wave of desperate attacks. But some sound handling by keeper Stuart Brock and supreme defending by Mark Shail seemed to have taken the sting out of the home outfit until they struck with a dramatic equaliser nine minutes from time.

Defender Leo Roget moved forward to take a square ball from Scott Houghton in his stride before rifling a 25-yard screamer into the top corner of the net.

Kidderminster stormed forward in the dying minutes, but Gary Barnett was left holding his head in shame as he somehow missed a great 85th minute chance -- screwing the ball wide of an open goal.

Kidderminster looked so comfortable and assured early on with the only surprise being that they failed to go in at the break with more than one goal to show for their dominance.

That came from the head of defender Shail who rose superbly to nod in Barnett's 28th minute corner.

Kidderminster let the home side off the hook when Bird shot over the bar from a great position on 32 minutes and then Bird again saw another effort fly wide when he should have hit the target eight minutes before the interval.

Harriers looked so superior to a struggling out- of-sorts Southend outfit in that one-sided opening period with the excellent Barry Horne spraying the ball around almost at will.

But too many players went missing once Southend stepped on the gas and it was desperate rearguard action which prevented an even worse result for Jan Molby's men.