Kidderminster Harriers 5 v 0 Atherstone Town

Saturday 22nd September 2018
FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round
Aggborough Stadium, Kidderminster
Admission: £12.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 1212
Match Rating: 3

With a coach ticket booked to Birmingham for today, and with today being FA Cup day, I shortlisted visits to Alvechurch, Stourbridge or Kidderminster Harriers. In the end, I chose Kidderminster, as it is a ground that I have wanted to visit for some time, was an opportunity to visit a former Football League ground, and reduced admission was being offered today - £12 for anywhere in the stadium, as opposed to the usual £15 for standing or £17 for seating.

Once I arrived at Birmingham Digbeth coach station, I made my way to Birmingham Moor Street train station, for the 40 minute train journey to Kidderminster. Aggborough Stadium is about a ten minute walk southwards from the station. The main stand backs onto the car park, to the bottom of which is the club shop, ticket office and, to one side, the Harriers Arms pub. Once inside, the ground is neat, smart and compact, with facilities offering something for everyone. It probably better reflects the fact that the ground was a Football League venue for five seasons after the millennium, than the club's current status in the National League North. Along both lengths there are all-seater stands, the main stand having hospitality boxes along the top and with quite a high back wall, whereas the opposite stand - where I chose to sit - just had seating, but with more rows than the main stand. Behind both goals there are very similar covered terraces stretching between corner flags. The compact and covered nature of the stands ensure that any noise generated in retained facilitating a good atmosphere. A thinner version of the club's regular programme was produced today, consisting of 16 glossy pages and it was adequate enough with some articles to read and the essential stats. Teamsheets were available from the club shop.

It would be fair to say that Kidderminster would be strong favourites to progress today, as they play four divisions above visitors Atherstone Town. Kidderminster have made a great start to their season in the National League North, in second place, having won five and drawn four of their opening ten league games, only losing their first league game in midweek at Chester. Atherstone Town are in Division One, the second tier, of the Midland Football League, and had drawn five and lost the other if their opening six league games.  They have had to negotiate three rounds to reach today's fixture, every time beating higher league opposition - Hanley of the North West Counties League Premier Division 4-1 after a replay, Southern League Central Division outfit Bedworth United 2-3 away, and then Quorn, of the Midland Premier, 0-1 away.

On a damp, drizzly afternoon, this was indeed a predictably one-sided affair, although enormous credit should go to the underdogs who battled hard to stay in the game for as long as possible, even if they were pinned back in their own half for long periods and barely had a sight of goal. Despite Kidderminster having plenty of sighters at goal in the opening half hour, Atherstone somehow held out until the 34th minute, when the hosts finally made the breakthrough. Declan Weeks struck the ball from the edge of the area, the keeper decided to punch the ball away, unnecessarily, and it fell to Dan Bradley who fired the ball home first time. Barely a minute later, another unnecessary punch out by the keeper resulted in a flurry of chances during something of a scramble, with one of the shots coming back off the underside of the bar. On 41 minutes, the visiting keeper was relieved when a shot he should have comfortably gathered instead bounced against his arm and only just wide of the post. But he did otherwise play his part in restricting Kidderminster to just the one goal lead at half time, to give the visitors some hope that, with a bit of fortune, this tie was far from over.

With Kidderminster Harriers renowned for offering possibly the best pies in English football, I felt I had to sample a cottage pie with gravy during half-time, not cheap at £4.50 but it was certainly a large portion, very tasty and filling, with a generous amount of meat and a lovely potato topping. It certainly kept me full for the rest of the day and evening. The second half then continued in the same fashion as the first, with Kidderminster utterly dominant and looking to attack while Atherstone focused on keeping men behind the ball. But the game was all but killed off on 54 minutes when they were awarded a penalty for a trip in the box, which Joe Ironside stroked down the middle. And it really was game over two minutes later  when Kidderminster scored their third following a good move forward, a good ball was played low diagonally through the defence, played out to Ironside, and with the keeper coming to close him down, he laid the ball off to Bradley, who tapped the ball into an empty net. The signs were there that the scoreline could get ugly in the final half hour, with the floodgates seeming to have been breached, and on 68 minutes, Kidderminster scored their fourth. A good low pass through the defence found Bradley, who took a touch before passing the ball into the net for his hat-trick. A very rare Atherstone shot on goal came on 74 minutes when Josh Ruff forced a fingertip save following a free-kick. It was their only shot on target throughout the match. In the end, Kidderminster only managed to score once more, on 87 minutes, when Lee Vaughan crossed the ball from the right and Kane Richards tapped the ball in at the far post.

5-0 was how it finished, and it could been an awful lot worse for the visitors, but they deserved a fairly respectable scoreline for battling so hard to stay in the game despite the vast gulf in quality between the two teams. But they have had a decent cup run and will now focus on earning promotion to Step 5 football for next season. Kidderminster will hope this is the start of another memorable run into the competition proper, for which they are famed. Mention should also be made of the 179 visiting fans, who gave their team superb support throughout with almost constant noise on their big day out, even when the game was up for their team.

Video highlights of this match can be found by clicking here