Saturday, January 28, 2006

HARRIERS chalked up their biggest win of the season at struggling Southport on the way to stretching their Nationwide Conference winning streak to three games.

Despite going 1-0 down with just four minutes on the clock, Mark Yates' side crushed the basement boys with a four-star showing.

Francino Francis, the Watford starlet who is on a work experience loan deal with Kidderminster, had a chance to open his account for the club with just 30 seconds on the clock.

The burly frontman got on the end of a Russ Penn cross and drilled a shot on goal, but home 'keeper Steve Dickinson managed to cling on to it.

However, Harriers' bright start was soon snuffed out when the hosts opened the scoring through a Neil Robinson header.

Skipper Mark Jackson put Harriers back on level terms on 15 minutes, though, when he headed in a Jonny Harkness free kick that evaded Dickinson. From this point onwards, the visitors never looked back and they only had to wait until the 25th minute to take the lead.

Harkness, who has made a promising start to his spell with the Harriers since joining from Walsall on loan, made it 2-1 with a picture book free kick from 25 yards.

Then, on 34 minutes, Iyseden Christie joined the party with a spectacular goal of his own.

The striker picked up the ball on the run from Simon Russell and drilled a crisp shot past Dickinson from some distance for his 13th goal of the campaign.

His future at Aggborough remains subject to much speculation, though, with the closure of the transfer window looming and Rochdale and Lincoln thought to be interested in securing his services.

The travelling Harriers fans were sent into raptures in the 58th minute when Russell tapped into an unguarded net from some range after the home 'keeper had parried a shot from the lively Francis.

The impressive win moved Harriers up to 15th in the table ahead of their tough trip to third-placed Halifax on Saturday (3pm).

Yates is delighted with the run his players have put together and is urging them to keep it going.

He said: "We have to keep winning football matches and see where that takes us.

"Hopefully we can kick on and steadily climb the table. It has been a decent start but I am demanding more from the players in every match."

The manager was also impressed by Francis' showing.

He added: "Francis can be well pleased with his performance and with a bit more luck he could have had a hat-trick."