Harriers 0 Stevenage 0 - Mat Kendrick reports from Aggborough

FROM the team's improved performance to the skipper's cynical sending off, everything about Harriers was professional as they made a point against play-off seeking Stevenage.

After the home woes of recent weeks, keeping a clean sheet was just what the doctor ordered as a cure for Aggborough-phobia, even though the anaesthetic lasted for 90 minutes.

Even captain Daryl Burgess's straight red card for a deliberate goal-stopping foul on Jon Nurse midway through the second-half could not detract from a disciplined display.

In fact, the experienced defender's decision to illegally halt Nurse's 72nd minute charge towards goal should be commended rather than condemned on an afternoon when a clean sheet was key.

Neither the skipper's professional foul nor an encounter devoid of entertainment would have pleased the football purists during a dreadfully dull bore draw.

But sometimes it's simply a case of getting the job done - and for that Mark Yates and his under-pressure players deserve a slice of credit.

Yates should also be applauded for swallowing his pride with a couple of brave tactical switches to strengthen a defence that had shipped nine goals in the previous two home games.

Dropping a keeper he has recently raved about and leaving out a left back he signed himself cannot have been easy for the Kidderminster manager.

But the form of John Danby and Jonny Harkness had dipped to such a level that replacing them with Dan Lewis and Gavin Hurren was the only sensible solution.

And the rearguard re-shuffle paid off perfectly as Lewis pulled off a string of super saves to shut out Stevenage, while Hurren ran him close for man-of-the-match with a typically assured display.

In bolstering his backline, the boss subsequently sacrificed Harriers's attacking edge and the disappoinitng by-product was that the home side barely registered an effort on goal.

Their chance of the first half came when Jon Newby got the better of defender Ronnie Henry only to be beaten to Jake Sedgemore's long ball by keeper Alan Julian.

And with much of the match being played out in the midfield third, Harriers' only other threat came when Simon Rea's header from a Terry Fleming corner was hacked away.

It was a similar story after the break, although Newby did force a smart save from Julian with a left-footed drive following Russ Penn's determined surge forward.

Play-off chasing Stevenage were no better as an attacking force, at least not until the Kidderminster captain's dismissal gave them a numerical advantage.

Their brightest moment of the first period came when Lewis reacted acrobatically to fingertip Luke Oliver's header onto the post after a swirling free kick from Adam Miller.

Boro, and in particular George Boyd, were buoyed by Burgess's premature departure with the Stevenage winger seeing a hat-trick of late chances come and go.

His vicious volley was tipped over at full stretch by Lewis who then clung onto a deflected effort from the same player.

Lewis also showed alertness to palm a poor back header from Rea around the post before watching a Boyd lob sail over his head and over the bar.