MICHAEL Gash admitted he was “happy to be back” after coming off the bench to play a major role in Harriers’ crushing Skrill Premier victory over Lincoln City at Aggborough.

The 27 year old striker broke the deadlock just before half time and then helped set up second half goals for Kyle Storer and Anthony Malbon.

Harriers’ tally included an own goal by Andrew Boyce with the Imps’ consolation effort coming from former Aggborough hot-shot Nick Wright.

Gash, who came on as a 29th minute replacement for injured Nathan Blissett, was returning to action after being on the casualty list for Harriers’ previous three games.

Afterwards, he said: “It’s not a bad day’s work, but obviously the most important thing is that we got three points.

“Obviously, I wasn’t thinking I was coming on that early, but like the gaffer says you’ve always got to be ready in case there’s an injury. Unfortunately there was to Bliss, so I got my opportunity to come on and was very happy with the goal and the two assists.

“But it was a great team performance. Everyone played well. We let it drop a little bit with ten minutes to go, but I think 4-1 was a fair result.

“First half it was a bit tight. I think they came here to make it a bit awkward for us, but second half we really kicked on. We had opportunities to score three more goals and we could have had more. There was no reaction to my injury and no problems with it and I’m happy to be back.”

It was second-placed Harriers’ third successive victory which keeps them six points behind Cambridge United, who continued their reign at the top of the table with a 2-0 home win over Salisbury City.

Harriers nudged ahead three minutes before the interval when Gash put his recent hamstring troubles behind him to fire an unstoppable 25 yard screamer past diving goalkeeper Paul Farman.

It was his fifth goal of the campaign which signposted the way for Harriers to produce a far more dominant second half display against the visitors, who had let in only 12 goals in their previous 15 matches.

Within a few minutes of the restart lively Joe Lolley cut inside and blasted fierce shot against the bar. He then sent in a cross which reached Amari Morgan-Smith, who saw his deflected effort bounce on top of the bar. The resulting corner led to Lolley firing the ball across the face of goal where it ended up in the back of the net after hitting Boyce on 55 minutes.

Shortly afterwards former Imp Josh Gowling had a header cleared off the line before Gash played his part in setting up captain Storer for a stunning 68th minute shot which whistled past Farman from 20 yards.

Gary Simpson’s side pulled a goal back through substitute Wright on 80 minutes and then caused Harriers one or two awkward moments before Malbon, a 66th minute replacement for Jack Byrne, completed the scoring with his fourth goal of the season.

Aggborough boss Steve Burr, whose side are unbeaten in their last six outings and have won seven of their last ten matches, said: “Some of our football in the second half was very good and we finished off with some fine moves and saw some quality goals. I'm really pleased. Overall, I thought we were very dominant in the second half and it started to flow for us. Every time we went forward we looked like we were going to score."

Harriers: Lewis 6; L.Vaughan 7, Gowling 7, Grimes 7, Jackman 7; Storer 7, Fowler 6; Byrne 6 (Malbon, 66, 6); Lolley 7 (Johnson, 77, 6), Blissett 6 (GASH, 29, 8), Morgan-Smith 7. Subs not used: N. Vaughan, Gittings.

Lincoln: Farman; Miller, Boyce, Brown, Newton; Nolan (Fofana, 72), Foster (Dixon, 83,); Sheridan, Power, Jordan, (Wright, 52); Tomlinson.

Subs not used: Yussuf, Gray.

Referee: Brett Huxtable (Devon).

Attendance: 2,103 (205 away fans).