Kidderminster Harriers 0(0) v (0)1 Shrewsbury Town

Injury-hit Harriers were sunk by a solitary goal eight minutes from time after a battling performance looked to have won them at least a point in front of new caretaker-manager Shaun Cunnington.

Such were the injury problems that Cunnington had to contend with he was unable to name 16 players, only having four subs on the bench instead.  New loan capture goalkeeper Ben Foster, arrived from Stoke City the day before the game, was brought in for his Football League debut and gave a solid all-round performance, there was little he could do about the winning goal while Simon Russell came in on the right wing for only his second start since he joined the club.

With the relative positions of the two clubs in the league - Harriers bottom and Shrewsbury one place higher - there was a lot of tension in the play which only added to the derby atmosphere.  There was almost a dream start for Town when, after three minutes, Ryan Lowe had the ball in the net from Darren Moss' right wing cross but the goal was ruled out as Lowe was adjudged to have pushed his way past Shaun Cooper to get to the ball. Before too long, however, Harriers had a chance to open the scoring themselves with a free-kick just outside the penalty area on the right.  Unfortunately Dean Keates' shot hit the wall and when the ball came back to him his follow-up hit the wall also.

Foster saved Harriers when Abdou Sall hesitated in clearing the ball allowing Jamie Tolley to get in a shot from the edge of the penalty area that the young keeper did well to hold onto at the second attempt low down to his right.  Another free kick from Keates led to another chance for Harriers; this time from deeper on the right his cross found the head of James Keene who directed the ball on target but not with enough power to beat Scott Howie in the visitors' goal.  The lively Russell then created the best chance so far for himself, chasing a pass down the wing from Cooper he cut inside his marker and held him off despite being fouled but his shot toward the near post was saved well by Howie.  Harriers were beginning to get on top as the half drew to a close and moments after Russell's effort Keene set up Kelvin Langmead who, after a good turn on the edge of the box, beat Howie only to see his shot canon back off the post and across the face of goal with nobody following up.  On the stroke of half time Chris McHale came to Harriers' rescue when a corner was not cleared and Darren Tinson's header seemed destined for the back of the net until he popped up to head it off the line.

After the break the game was not so good as both sides were desperate to hold on to at least the point that they had with the score goalless.  Langmead went close to breaking the deadlock when his header from Keates' right wing corner was held by Howie but only just.  Shrewsbury were looking dangerous on the counter-attack and on the hour wasted a golden chance; Duane Darby found Sam Aiston on the left wing and he was allowed to run from half-way to the goalline and his low cross was turned around the near post by Lowe who should have done much better.  Jesper Christiansen, on as a half time sub for Ian Foster, created some problems for the Shrewsbury defence from the left; his pass found Keates whose curled shot only just drifted wide of the far post with Keene arriving late and then a backheel from the Dane put Steve Burton in the clear on the wing and his cross found an unmarked Youssou Diop whose diving header went wide of the far post.

The game was won for the visitors eight minutes from the end; the ball was played through the inside-right channel for Lowe who broke into the penalty area and rifled a rasping shot from a narrow angle across Foster and into the far corner of the net.  Harriers' heads visibly dropped at this setback after such a battling display up to that point and they were unable to mount a serious comeback to salvage something from the game.