Kidderminster Harriers 0(0) v (0)0 Notts County

Harriers maintained their unbeaten start to the season with a second goalless draw from two games, they dominated an often exciting encounter but were ultimately unable to break down their visitors.

Ian Foster and Dean Keates returned to the starting line-up at the expense of Chris McHale and Jesper Christiansen who dropped down to the bench.  Youssou Diop moved to centre forward from the left wing and Lee Jenkins dropped back to right back.  As in the season opener at Rushden on Saturday, Harriers made a tentative start to the game and allowed their visitors to take the early upper hand as they looked to end a five game losing streak away from home.

Once again Harriers were indebted to John Danby in goal early on when he made a great save at close range to keep out Julien Baudet's header after sleepy Harriers defenders had allowed County to take a quick free kick on the edge of the penalty area.  Shortly afterwards Harriers had a good shout for a penalty turned down by rookie referee Andy Woolmer when Frédéric Advice-Desruisseaux put Simon Brown in the clear on the right, the on-loan attacker broke into the penalty area only to be brought down by a heavy challenge from David Pipe but the ref waved play on.  The first 25 minutes were quite scrappy, Harriers had most of the possession but it was County who looked the more dangerous side.

Brown had another chance to open the scoring, battling his way through the County defence he lashed his shot wide of the far post and then at the other end Glynn Hurst found himself in space in the Harriers penalty area but blazed his shot over the bar.  The game began to develop more and Harriers began to get on top, Foster was the next to go close - his shot was tipped away by Wayne Henderson in the visitors' goal.

After the break Harriers continued to dominate possession but it was County who were first to show; Rob Ullathorne got forward on the left and hit a blistering shot that Danby pushed up onto the bar and away for a corner.  From the resultant corner Harriers failed to get the ball clear and Hurst's attempted flick over his shoulder bounced on the top of the crossbar before dropping safely out of play.

Diop was far more effective in a central role than he had been at Rushden stuck out on the left wing; he created two good openings, first breaking clear of a static County defence before rolling the ball into the path of Advice-Desruisseaux who was denied by a cracking last-ditch tackle by Kelvin Wilson.  Diop's next involvement again included Advice-Desruisseaux, after an exchange of passes the big Senegalese striker crossed from the right to the far post where Foster headed the ball down into the path of Keates whose 20-yard drive was cleared off the line by Ian Richardson.

Despite having a lot of possession and creating a number of good openings, Harriers were not really testing Henderson.  A series of corners in quick succession led to a hectic scramble in the Notts goalmouth but The Reds could not manage a shot at goal in the melee.  Twenty minutes from the end Harriers had the ball in the net, Advice-Desruisseaux threaded a pass through into the penalty area into the path of Diop who lashed it in of the underside of the crossbar but the linesman's flag was raised and the goal was ruled out.

As the game wore on it became more and more open; Tony Scully saw a 25-yard effort dip just over the bar while at the other end a gently lofted Keates free kick dropped invitingly for Adrian Viveash but he could only steer it into the side netting and then a surging run forward by Steve Burton ended with him letting fly from 20 yards or more with a shot that only just flew over the angle of post and bar.  In the dying moments a right wing cross was only half cleared and fell to Viveash whose long-range drive was not too far wide and finally Scott Rickards flashed a shot across the face of goal as Harriers tried desperately to nick all three points at the death.