Mansfield 3
Harriers 3

THREE second half goals ensured Harriers finished their season with a real flourish on Saturday as they came back from the dead to claim a point at Mansfield Town.

Steve Burr's men simply didn't turn up in the first period and were given the run around by Mansfield's Jake Sepight who helped himself to a hat-trick within 45 minutes.

But, no doubt on the end of a stern talking to at the break, they staged one of the comebacks of the season after the re-start, and after Jack Byrne and Darryl Knights had made it 3-2 within eight minutes, Chris McPhee levelled the scores on 74 minutes, his goal ensuring the points were shared.

With Dean Coleman back in goal for his first league game since February and Tom Sharpe taking the skipper's armband, Harriers failed to take note of an early warning of Speight's talents as he narrowly fired across goal on 12 minutes.

Six minutes later he had opened the scoring with the first of his three – keeping hold of the ball to feet before curling a shot from around 20 yards past the beaten Coleman and into the back of the net, a strike of real quality.

Seven minutes later he'd made it two and it was all his own work, holding off the challenge of Chris McPhee for the length of the pitch before slamming home a finish on the angle.

In the dying moments of the first half he had his hat-trick all wrapped up – Coleman was left with head in hands after allowing the tamest of toe-pokes to squirm under his grasp before rolling agonisingly over the line.

Harriers completely changed things around after the half-time break. The 54th minute mark came and saw them back at 3-2; Darryl Knights firing in sweetly from the edge of the area after Jack Byrne had forced a strong header into the back of the net, his first goal for the club since his move from Redditch United.

By no means did the away side have it all their own way in the second half – Mansfield had several chances to add to their lead before eventually losing it; Coleman more than making amends for his earlier mistake with saves from Speight and Rob Duffy.

With a little more than a quarter hour left to play, parity was re-stored as Harriers again netted, forcing wild scenes in amongst their hefty travelling ranks as McPhee fired one into the top corner from distance, Alan Marriott not able to even offer a save.

A real game of two halves almost got a complete turn-around as Harriers went close to going 4-3 up in the final stages – substitute Lloyd Kerry lashed in a shot from outside the area that was well held by Marriott.

HARRIERS: Coleman 6; Courtney 6; Baker 7; Finnigan 7 (Kerry 69 6); McPHEE 8; Bennett 6 (Goodfellow 84 6); Knights 7; Smikle 7; Sharpe 6; Matthews 6 (Riley 45 7); Byrne 7.

Subs not used: Singh, Lawrie.

MANSFIELD: Marriott; Mills; Garner; Foster; Silk; Briscoe; (Istead 59); Somner; Burgess; Williams; Duffy (Shaw 85); Speight (Perry 90).

Attendance: 2,734 (144 away) Referee: P. Wright.