MARK Yates hopes their brush with a video nasty will spur Kidderminster Harriers players into action.

The Harriers boss is normally one to defend his under-achieving stars but he was in no such mood after Saturday's 1-0 Conference defeat at York City.

Yates ordered them in to watch a tape of the dour display on Sunday and suggested they "take a long, hard look at themselves".

There will need to be a big improvement if Harriers are to kickstart their campaign with a first home win against Southport tonight (7.45).

And Yates, still missing experienced striker Dean Sturridge with an Achilles injury, insisted: "The players know what I expect of them. If they didn't before then they'll certainly know now. I feel for the supporters who made the long journey to York. At the moment we're just giving them crumbs to feed on."

Only centre-half Mark Creighton emerged with any credit from their fifth defeat of the season which is likely to mean changes in Yates' starting line-up.

Midfielder Jamie McClen and full-back Jeff Kenna are doubts after being forced off the pitch through injury at the weekend.

Simon Russell, scorer of the equaliser at Cambridge United last Tuesday, said: "After Saturday's game we all came in to watch through the video and talked about where we were going wrong.

"Oviously, now we've got to come together as a team and a unit and put things right. We shouldn't be where we are - we should be up there challenging.

"But rather than it being a mystery, we are aware that we're doing things wrong during matches, a lot of things, and that's why we're working on it."

Fourth-from-bottom Harriers, with just one win and four goals this season, must tackle a Southport side boosted by Saturday's 3-1 win over Crawley.

Former Stevenage forward Dino Maamria scored twice for the 16th-placed Sandgrounders who lost their last away game 4-0 at high-flying Grays Athletic.

They have signed 6ft 3ins Nigerian forward Awen Douglas, who has had trials with Brentford and Derby, in time for tonight's game.