The main points of interest to come out of the evening were that manager Steve Burr is going nowhere at the moment; some of the current squad will be offered contracts for next season sooner rather than later; season tickets for next season will be available before the end of this season; and, KHIST finally have a representative on the board of the football club.

Also, Mark Serrell came out of the meeting having given a very positive image of himself – it was he first time that I had heard him speak – as the best person currently to be in the position of chairman.  Former prospective buyer Chris Swan was painted in a very poor light, however.

Following on from the news that had broken earlier in the day about Grimsby Town’s approach to speak to Burr about the vacant manager’s position at Blundell Park it was reiterated by the manager himself that he is more than happy in his current job.  Serrell had rung him and informed him of Grimsby’s interest and asked his feelings on it, Burr told him that he is happy where he is and so The Mariners were not given permission to speak to him.  Burr did say that he would probably have had a budget two or three times that that he is currently working with and that he could have increased his wages but he likes it here in Kidderminster.

Asked about the current squad, and whether any of them had surprised him with there performances against what he had initially expected from them, he expressed a belief that Matt Blair could go on to play at a higher level, that he could understand why Callum Gittings hadn’t been playing at this level earlier – although Gary Whild did interject at this point that when he had been the Redditch manager he had been unable to get the player out of Alvechurch.  Michael Briscoe was praised also, now one of the most regular players in the team Burr had only expected him to be a squad player when he signed him in the summer.  Dave Hankin was singled out as a player lacking in confidence, the manager saying that he w as capable of far more than we have seen so far.

Burr hopes to have maybe 80% or more of the current squad remain at the club for next season, and talks are already underway with a number of them.  An announcement is hoped for sooner rather than later with news of the outcome of those talks.  In answer to a question from the floor the manager said that he wants to keep Chris McPhee at the club, but expects that although the player loves it at Kidderminster he [McPhee] will wait until the end of the season as he will have a number of other clubs interested and there may be something that is more suitable for him with regard to his travelling.  Personally, I think McPhee will still be a Kidderminster Harriers player come August, especially if what was once a highly unlikely target of promotion is achieved.

Still on the subject of players, Burr revealed that Sean Canham’s loan from Hereford would be extended for the rest of the season and that he did have a player lined up to bring in on loan before the deadline at the end of the month if necessary, although he didn’t feel that he needed to bring anyone else in to put straight into the team, only as an extra body in case of injury or suspension.

The chairman gave a fairly detailed overview of the club’s current financial standing, even going into projections for the rest of the season and into next.  As things stand the club is in no immediate danger; the recent increased crowds for the games against Altrincham and Wrexham brought in approximately £22000 each in extra revenue and maintaining that level of support for the rest of the season would go a long way towards ensuring that the manager can be given a budget  that is at least as much as his current one for next season, allowing him to bring in players that he has already identified.  The current forecast for the rest of this season is that the club will have anything between £0 and £20000 of normal trading debts and a £64000 brewery loan.

The current predictions for next season, assuming that attendances continue around the 1300 mark, see a shortfall of around £90000.  The hope is to increase the number of season tickets from the current level around 560 to 1000 which, it is hoped, would bring in an extra £81000 and go a long way to meeting that shortfall.  Season tickets will be put on sale early, with a couple of alterations to the current pricing structure in that there will be an extra ‘School Leavers/ Young Adult’ band for those who no longer qualify for the juniors concession but are not in full time education, and the seniors concession age is lowered from 65 to 60.  Normal ticket prices for next season are likely to be held at the current level if the club is still in the Conference but will be increased if promotion is acheived, making an early-bird season ticket even an more attractive option.

Serrell confirmed that the current board of directors are still actively looking for more investment, and have six parties interested in either investing or buying the club.  He ruefully commented how it was funny that now the club is out of danger people are interested in getting involved but were nowhere to be seen when help was needed.  Questions were asked about the involvement of George Rolls and it was revealed that the controversial figure had, when Harriers were just hours from entering a CVA, made a no-strings offer of £80000 to the club.  His subsequent study of the club had revealed nothing that the board didn’t already know, but he had said that they would be “crazy” to sell it.

Revelations about the behaviour of Chris Swan raised a few eyebrows when the events of the last days of his aborted takeover of the club were recounted.  The reported extra £160000+ of debt that he had found had been greeted with surprise by the board as Swan had used the club’s new accountant Joe Hancox to go through the books and he had reported no such thing.  Swan’s advice to the board had been to make the club insolvent, drop a couple of leagues and then go back and talk to him again.  He had also taken umbrage with KHIST and vowed to ‘break’ them.

New Board Member Karl Davies

Despite their run-in with Mr Swan, KHIST have had a productive few months; their efforts in raising money – over £20000 in the space of just a few days – were applauded and they have finally gained a representative on the board of the football club which has been their long-held aim.  Karl Davies was unveiled as the man to take that position, at least for the next few months while both parties (the board and KHIST) study the benefits of the arrangement and until his position on the KHIST board is up for election.

The evening as a whole also raised money for the club; the ticket price of £10 to cover the meal provided by Brian Murdoch went to the club as the caterer waived his costs, and along with a raffle a total of around £800 was raised.

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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 1985-86 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!

Popularity: 12% [?]

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.

Popularity: 8% [?]

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.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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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Popularity: 61% [?]