Saturday, October 8, 2005

STUART Watkiss challenged his players to show a consistent side after Kidderminster Harriers deservedly de-feated high-flying Morecambe.

Striker Gareth Sheldon eased the pressure on manager Watkiss by burying a chance in first-half stoppage time to end a run of three Nationwide Conference home defeats.

Harriers went back to basics, switching to a more traditional 4-4-2 formation, and were rewarded with a fine team effort.

The non-stop running of strikers Sheldon and Iyseden Christie went hand-in-hand with a controlled midfield, a rock-solid back four and the assured goalkeeping of John Danby.

Veteran Martin O'Connor was restored to the line-up along with Terry Fleming and showed Harriers what they had been missing recently, providing a reliable and cool head in midfield.

Morecambe are opponents more suited to Harriers -- the Shrimps keep the ball on the grass and do not have the physical force of other Conference outfits.

But their football is capable of tearing teams apart, so it was a tribute to Harriers' defensive commitment that seven-goal top scorer Michael Twiss barely had an opportunity to shine.

There will be better games served up at Aggborough but, frankly, anything was going to be better than the last three woeful home efforts -- and Watkiss now wants more.

He said: "It's a pleasing result and a better performance. Obviously, you tell them `well done', but you also tell them what a bunch of so and so's they are because that's what they're capable of.

"That's what you know they can achieve in terms of level of performance and determination. So we have to learn to do that more consistently.

"The consistency thing now is the key issue. What we have to do is show that eight or nine times out of 10 and not once every three or four games.

"That's been a problem recently, but this was a step in the right direction and we've got to try to build on it now.

"By no means do we think the bad spell has ended and we're going to have a good spell now. We won because we deserved to win in terms of effort, commitment and quality of play at times against a good team."

In order to find consistency, Watkiss does not intend to change the formation or team at Aldershot next Saturday unless injuries force his hand.

In a game of few chances, both sides received warning signs but Harriers responded better to inflict Morecambe's fifth away league defeat.

The hosts learnt to pick up centre-half Jim Bentley after two dangerous headers, one forcing a tremendous save from Danby on 36 minutes.

And after Sheldon fired two efforts across the face of goal, he was again allowed too much room to dispatch an excellent 20-yarder before the interval following Christie's brave flick-on.

Morecambe made few inroads in hunting for a second-half equaliser and Harriers looked more likely to grab another goal.

Michael Blackwood forced a scrambled save from Ryan Robinson on the hour and Christie, racing onto a superb Sheldon pass, struck the post 12 minutes later.

HARRIERS: Danby; Evans, Jackson, Burgess, Hatswell; Russell, O'Connor (Wilson 80), Fleming, Blackwood (Heslop 77); Sheldon (Atieno 85), Christie. Subs not used: Burton, Thompson.

Attendance: 1,461.