Harriers' four-game unbeaten run was brought to an end by a Grays side who ended a four-game winless streak and maintained the hold over Harriers at The New Recreation Ground where The Reds are yet to win.

Fielding the same line-up for the third game in a row Harriers were surprisingly tentative in their approach in the first half and allowed the home side to have far too much possession and didn't really get at them when they had the ball themselves.  Goalmouth action was limited in the opening period; for Harriers Russ Penn and Mark Creighton had efforts that flew over the bar without testing Ross Flitney in the home goal.  Adam Bartlett was by far the busier keeper making two outstanding saves to keep Harriers in the game; first he tipped a Danny Kedwell header over the bar after Sam Sloma's cross from the left had found the striker unmarked, and then he had to get down sharply to keep out Stuart Elliott's 25-yard effort that had deflected off Justin Richards.

It wasn't much of a surprise, then, when Grays took a 54th minute lead; substitute Ishmael Welsh's cross from the left was only partially cleared and fell to Stuart Thurgood 20 yards out at the far post and he drilled a low shot into the bottom corner to open the scoring.  Harriers were actually playing better now and shortly afterwards could have drawn level when Martin Brittain's right-wing cross found its way to Penn who saw his shot deflected to the goalkeeper.

The equaliser did come just before the hour; good work by Brian Smikle on the left set up Richards who did well to control and turn before lashing in his fifth goal of the season.  Within a minute Harriers should have been ahead; Brittain's cross found Richards who brought it down well, beat his man and then fired over the bar.  Moments later a surging run down the left wing by Smikle ended with a cross that was only just out of Richards' reach.

At this point it looked as though Harriers would go on to win the game but they found themselves behind again after 68 minutes when possession was given away cheaply to Sloma who was allowed to dance his way through the Harriers defence before firing over Bartlett into the roof of the net.  Suddenly Harriers were even further behind and chasing the game as Jamie taylor received a pass from the right wing and slipped the ball into the path of Barry Cogan who drilled his shot past Bartlett to make it 3-1.

Harriers had plenty of chances to get back into the game and on anther day better finishing would have seen them win the match comfortably.  Nine minutes from the end a pass through the middle of the park put in Darryl Knights who saw his shot parried as far as Richards who blazed his follow-up shot over the bar.

At the death Harriers pulled another goal back; a corner from the right was not cleared and when Luke Jones' far post header came back off the upright Matt Barnes-Homer was on hand to bundle in his fourth goal of the season.  Even in stoppage time Harriers could have got a point out of the game, the best chance fell to Creighton who was the wrong player in the right place and fired high and wide.