How much of his selection and tactics was down to the players available was unclear, but the line-up sent out by Steve Burr for his first game at Aggborough brought back good memories.

As a player Burr was familiar with Harriers, and the way that they played, under Graham Allner.  This was something that the new manager alluded to in the press conference for his unveiling last week.

For Tuesday night’s game against Grays he set out with a formation akin to a 4-3-3, and pleasing to see was two strikers on the halfway line when we were defending a corner.  As he had promised to give every player in the squad a chance to shine he made a number of changes to the team that had drawn in his first game down at Crawley on Saturday, so his choices may have ben influenced by the players available, but I’ve a sneaking feeling that this is the way that he likes to play and we may see more of the same.  At Crawley we began with the tried and tested 4-3-1-2, diamond formation, man-in-the-hole, that we’ve been utilising in nearly every match this season, but at half time he changed it to this version of a 4-3-3 with a centre-forward and two more attacking players just off him, almost as old-fashioned inside forwards.

Back in the day Allner used to play three out-and-out strikers  up top all switching positions; anybody who was lucky enough to see the mighty triumvirate of Kim Casey, Paul Davies and Mick Tuohy back in the Eighties will look back fondly on those days and hope, as I do, that we’re about see more of the same under this new manager.  It might be a little early to hope for a repeat of the goalscoring antics that were seen in the 1986-86 season, though.

And on top of all this, we’ve got an FA Trophy tie against the scummers Worcester City at the weekend, the first proper competitive fixture between the clubs since April 1985 when a John Powell hat-trick helped Harriers to a 4-1.  Old Skool indeed!

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The appointment of Steve Burr as the man to lead Harriers back into the Football League took many people, myself included, by surprise.

When I wrote my post on the imminent appointment of a manager, speculating that Jim Harvey was the man most likely to get the job, I hadn’t even considered the possibility of Burr getting the job.

By the time I got to the Lewes game on Tuesday night I had almost convinced myself that Jimmy Quinn, formerly of Cambridge and Shrewsbury, was the best man for the job.  My thinking was that a Play-Off final with Cambridge and taking Shrewsbury out of this league, along with good performances at Reading and, to my recollection at least – I didn’t check my facts, Northwich, he had all the credentials required to a greater extent even than Harvey.  I even speculated in conversation with some friends that “wasn’t it Quinn in charge of Northwich when they overcame the big points deduction?”.

Steve Burr - New Harriers Manager (photo: Adam Church-Millward -twitter.com/churchymill)

Well I was completely wrong.  It wasn’t Harvey, it wasn’t Quinn and it wasn’t – as the press were convinced – Jeff Kenna.  Steve Burr has got the job and initially I wasn’t ecstatic as chairman Barry Norgrove had predicted that most Harriers fans would be.  I’m still not ecstatic, but that’s probably because I don’t really get ecstatic about anything these days, but I’m not disappointed.  In the same way that the more I thought about Jimmy Quinn, the more I liked the idea of him, the more I think about Steve Burr the more I think that he could do a good job here.  In the last six season he has won two league titles – Unibond League with Hucknall Town when the Unibond League fed directly into the Conference, only for his team to be denied promotion because the ground wasn’t up to scratch and Conference North with Northwich.  The latter after he had led the ‘Vics to a successful fight against relegation after being docked ten points (the season that I had thought Quinn was in charge) only for them to be thrown out of the Conference on a technicality; reached a play-off final with Stalybridge and just missed out on the play-offs with Celtic by one place.

The new man has all of the required credentials, he knows the non-league scene, he’s managed in Conference National before, he’s been successful, and by all accounts gets his teams playing decent football.  Only time will tell if he turns out to be a success, but there seems to be a tangible feeling of optimism around the place at the moment.  Over on the messageboard of this website there has been a large swing of support towards the chairman and board of directors for pulling this appointment out of the hat – several weeks of negotiations behind the scenes to get their man while people thought that they were dragging their feet and using any excuse, such as the snow or penny-pinching, to avoid naming a successor to Mark Yates – leading to quite a few people having to eat their words.

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Hopefully this week we’ll see Harriers with a new man at the helm after a drawn out selection process.

The board of directors have reduced a list of 50 applicants down to a shortlist of six and an announcement should be made in  the next couple of days as to who has got the job.  former Chester, Morecambe and Forest Green manager Jim Harvey is thought to be the leading contender with Gary Brabin, Jeff Kenna, Gary Mills and John Finnigan amongst the other names bandied about.

Jim Harvey - Next Harriers Manager?

Harvey is probably the favourite amongst the Harriers faithful.  He fits the bill as prescribed by chairman Barry Norgrove recently when he said that the new manager should have experience of the Conference or League Two; he certainly has experience of this league having led the three team already mentioned with some degree of success at each.  Even at his most recent position in charge of Chester where he was working with one hand tied behind is back in terms of finances available to bring in players he was able to bring through some promising youngsters and get them trying to play decent football.

I don’t think many Harriers fans would be disappointed to see him given the job, nor would they be too upset if Brabin or Mills were to take charge, given that both men are people who most will have heard of.  The worry, though, is that the board will cave in and give the job to somebody with no experience that noone has heard of or current caretaker-manager Finnigan because they are the ‘cheap option’.

Whoever gets the job will have to be at the top of his game as soon as he comes in as he will have little over a week until the transfer window closes if he wants to bring in any permanent signings, although the opportunity to bring in players on loan will be around for a few weeks longer once the permanent transfer window closes.

Saturday’s trip to Crawley could be very interesting if the new appointment has been made by then, as the board hope; quite possibly the first time Harriers have gone there with any sort of excitement surrounding the game.

Update 20/1/2010: Apparently both Jim Harvey and Jeff Kenna were seen at last night’s FA Trophy match with Lewes.  A press conference has been called at Aggborough tomorrow morning to unveil the new manager.

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How does she do it? How does Amy Rayner manage to bring out Harriers’ worst performances?

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a rant against women referees, although I don’t think shes a particularly good one, it’s just that we never play well when she’s in charge and, more to the point, we never win.

Seven times so far we have had the misfortune to have her in the middle and have managed just two draws from those games.  Not only that but the performances have never been great and often been amongst the worst of the season, for instance last night at Oxford, last season’s defeat at Droylsden and also at Grays.

Her full list of shame reads like this:

• 19/11/2005 Harriers 0-0 York City
• 02/01/2006 Altrincham 3-0 Harriers
• 17/02/2007 Harriers 0-2 Exeter City
• 18/08/2007 Grays Athletic 5-1 Harriers
• 26/01/2008 Droylsden 1-0 Harriers
• 12/04/2008 Harriers 1-1 Histon
• 25/11/2008 Oxford United 1-0 Harriers

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