Kidderminster Harriers Youth 4(1) v (0)0 Stourport Swifts

Harriers moved into the last four of the Worcestershire Youth Cup with an ultimately comfortable win over Stourport Swifts in a lively local derby game at Aggborough.

Playing their first game on home soil for two-and-a-half months Harriers were quickly into their stride after surviving an early scare when Stephen Price raced onto a through ball, reached it just before the onrushing Haydn Whitcombe and clipped his shot past the far post.  Harriers created chance after chance throughout and almost took the lead on 12 minutes when Chris Seekings' cross from the left was sliced narrowly past the post by Swifts defender Sebastian Little.

In the first half Harriers forced eight corners and managed 16 attempts at goal; wasteful finishing, though, saw them struggle to make the breakthrough despite being encamped in the Swifts' half for most of the first half.  Around the half-hour mark Robert Thompson-Brown crossed from the left, taking out the whole of the visiting defence and found Sam Woodhouse beyond the far post but he could only direct his header straight at 'keeper Michael Pratt.  Shortly afterwards an Insall corner from the left found skipper Joe Hull who saw his header blocked on the line by Matt Preece.

At the other end Harriers were almost made to pay for their profligacy when Whitcombe's clearance hit Price and rebounded back over his head; fortunately for Harriers the ball fell wide of the far post.  Two minutes before the break Harriers finally made the breakthrough; Insall made a good run to the byline on the right but was brought down by Aaron Stubbins in the penalty area.  Insall himself took the penalty and sent Pratt the wrong way from the spot.

After the break Harriers continued to dominate, although they didn't create quite as many chances.  On 66 minutes Thompson-Brown made a great run into the penalty area, jinking his way past three defenders, before shooting wide of the near post.  as tiredness and frustration started to creep in Stourport began to lose their discipline and Preece, Little and Stubbins all found themselves in the referee's notebook within the space of five minutes.

A poor back-pass by Preece on 78 minutes allowed Insall an opportunity to add to the score but he took the ball too wide when going past Pratt and had to pull it back to Woodhouse who drilled a low shot into the back of the net.  Four minutes later the game was made safe when Preece brought down Insall in the penalty area.  This time Pratt guessed the right way to dive and got a hand on the ball but Insall's shot had enough power on it to take it past him.

With just six minutes left Preece's evening which was already going badly for him became even worse when he scythed down Matt Holloway and was shown his second yellow card and sent-off.  In the last minute the scoring was completed when Joe Jackman, who had switched from right back to left back in place of the injured Holloway, sent a cross over from the touchline that deceived Pratt and flew straight in at the far post.