KIDDERMINSTER Harriers are braced for a huge attendance for Saturday’s friendly clash against Birmingham City, with the Championship club bringing a large travelling contingent.

The Aggborough outfit are hoping for a crowd in excess of 3,000 after interest from the visiting team reached an unprecedented level.

Birmingham’s supporters have already snapped up 2,000 tickets and will take up the Hoo Road ground’s east and south stands.

As a result, Kidderminster have been advised by local police to make the game an all-ticket affair.

With no tickets for the match to be sold on Saturday, the club have extended the opening hours of the shop until 7pm tonight and tomorrow.

Blues boss Lee Clarke is set to bring a strong squad to Wyre Forest after last Saturday’s game in Mansfield was called off because of safety concerns.

Harriers manager Gary Whild is also relishing the clash.

The last time the Reds played Birmingham was in the summer of 2001, when Andy Ducros scored in a 2-1 defeat, which saw Geoff Horsefield and Darren Purse hit the target for City.

After Birmingham (3pm ko), they complete their friendly fixtures by entertaining Shrewsbury on Tuesday (7.45pm ko) and Cheltenham on August 2 (3pm ko).

“There’s a lot of Birmingham fans coming down and playing in front of a big crowd gives the game more of an edge,” said Whild.

“We’ve been trying to increase the quality of games as we’ve gone along and Birmingham, Shrewsbury and Cheltenham are good games to complete our pre-season preparations.”

Meanwhile, Whild will continue to run the rule of a number of trialists, including Jake Green and Stevenage youngster Jay Dhillon, after Tuesday’s 4-0 win over Stourport Swifts. Last weekend, Harriers drew 0-0 at Hednesford Town.

“It was a good work out for us and I thought the pitch was excellent at Stourport,” commented Whild.

“At this stage, the games are all about fitness, but I was very pleased with the performance. Jake’s been with us all summer and we’ve had a good look at him so maybe we’ll do something.

“I thought Jay came in and did well at left-back and he’s someone we’ll look at again."

“He’s from down south so there might be an issue of travelling but we shall see.”

l Harriers' home game against Welling is to be televised on BT Sport, with the Conference Premier fixture moved to Wednesday, October 8.