Kidderminster Harriers 0(0) v (0)1 Bristol City

Harriers can consider themselves unlucky to have lost a close game, falling to a late goal by City substitute Paul Heffernan.

City had most of the possession and created, and wasted, a string of chances; John Danby often seemed to be keeping them at bay single-handedly.  It was, however, a good workout for a Harriers team that was almost at full strength; the only notable absentee was Rueben Hazell whose place was taken by an assured-looking Chris McHale and triallist Youssou Diop was included also.

It was Diop who was the first to threaten with an early shot that went narrowly wide but, from then on, City took control of the game.  Danby had to be alert when an attempt to play the ball back to him by Abdou Sall instead fell to the feet of Alun Armstrong but the keeper was quick off his line to block the shot.  He came to the rescue again when Steve Burton's headed clearance was drilled back through a crowded penalty area by Mark Goodfellow and he turned it away for a corner.  Half a dozen times in the first half City had clear goalscoring chances that Danby did well to keep out.  It was not until late in the half that Harriers tested Mike Stowell in the visitors' goal with a shot from Ian Foster.

Despite their continued lack of a cutting edge in attack, Harriers did play some decent football when they gained possession and the back five looked relatively composed for the most part.  Simon Brown, playing his first game since his return on loan from West Brom looked as though he will be able to provide a spark but whenever he created something, there was nobody on the end of it to capitalise.

The game was not so good after the break, it was in dire need of a goal but the play became concentrated in the midfield although both sides were trying to knock the ball around quite nicely.  Harriers had a half-chance early on, Diop crossed from the right but sub keeper Clint Davies just managed to snatch the ball off the head of Jesper Christiansen.  City should have taken the lead thirteen minutes from the end, a corner from the right was not cleared and fell to Clayton Fortune who balsted his shot wide from a good position in front of goal.  The inevitable City goal eventually arrived, and almost as inevitable was the fact that it was down to slack Harriers defending rather than top-level skills from City; Bradley Orr crossed from the right and found an unmarked Heffernan in penalty area who seemed to miscue his header and the ball looped past Danby in slow motion to nestle in the bottom corner.