Harriers have been drawn away from home in the First Round of the newly named Carling Cup at First Division Ipswich Town.
Other notable ties include Hartlepool United visiting former manager Chris Turner at Sheffield Wednesday while West Ham United entertain Rushden & Diamonds.  Conference Champions Yeovil Town must travel to Luton Town while Doncaster Rovers who were also promoted face Grimsby Town at Belle Vue.

Yet again Harriers have been handed a home game to open the season.  Mansfield Town, newly relegated from Division Two, will be the visitors to Aggborough on August 9th which means Harriers have yet to start a Football League campaing away from home.
The first away trip in the league will will be to open Darlington's new 25000 seat stadium on the following Saturday but the 1st Round of the Worthington Cup is due to take place in the week in between.  On Boxing Day Harriers are away fro the first time since promotion, they will visit Conference champions Yeovil Town.
The season ends at Aggborough when the previouse Conference champions, Boston United, visit.

Harriers today unveiled the new style home strip that they will be wearing next season.  White shorts make a return for the first time in nearly a decade, the shirt meanwhile is a plain red with a white collar.  The current black away strip remains, as does the silver third strip.
Meanwhile, work is nearing completion on the new East Stand.  Most of the seats have been installed, the majority in red with white ones spelling out the word Harriers.  Construction is due to be completed by July 4, in plenty of time for the opening home friendly against Leicester City.

Drewe Broughton has today signed a two-year contract with Harriers' Division Three rivals Southend United after being told by Ian Britton that he could leave on a free-transfer.
Talks had taken place between Britton and the player with the manager indicating that Broughton was not in his long-term plans and that he wouldn't be certain of a place in the starting line-up in the season to come.  As a result the player felt that now would be a good time to seek a new challenge elsewhere.
Despite being only 24 years old Broughton now links up with the ninth club of his career, having started at Norwich before moving on to Wigan, Brentford and then Peterborough.  After loans at Nuneaton, Dagenham and Stevenage he moved to Aggborough for one of the longest chapters in his career.
Speaking to the Official Harriers Website, Ian Britton said, "He wasn't forced out and I would have been happy for him to stay and fight for his place.  However, he knew he wasn't in my long term plans".  The player said, "I need to be playing first team football on a regular basis and it was apparent that could prove to be difficult here.  Admittedly the style of football Ian Britton wants to play doesn't really suit my game so it was probably best we shook hands and went our separate ways".  Later, speaking to the Southend website, he said, "I am delighted and really excited about the prospect of next season.  Hopefully I can bring some leadership upfront, I have played in this league now for a couple of years and hopefully I can lead the line for the team and take some weight off of the other players and help link up play to let the other lads play".
The departure of Broughton has had an upside for Ian Britton, the player was one of the highest paid players at the club and his wages will allow some flexibility for the manager in his attempts to strengthen the team, he said, "It's no secret that Drewe was one of our highest earners here so now he has gone it has left me with some scope in the transfer market and I am currently in negotiations with a number of players, including a couple of strikers.  Nothing is likely to happen within the next week or so as quite a few managers are on holiday at the moment.  However, work is progressing very nicely behind the scenes in bringing the players I want to Aggborough".