Harriers 2
Forest Green 1

HARRIERS’ assistant manager John Finnigan poured praise on super sub Damian Spencer after the on-loan striker snatched a dramatic stoppage-time winner against Blue Square Premier strugglers Forest Green Rovers on Saturday.

“It was a superb finish by Damian and just what we wanted at the point. We caused them a few problems in the last ten minutes with set-pieces, but it was a cracking finish for us,” said a delighted Finnigan.

The uninspiring clash at Aggborough seemed destined for deadlock until hero Spencer swooped with lethal accuracy one minute into added time.

Harriers’ joint leading marksman Brian Smikle put Steve Burr’s play-off hopefuls in front with an early goal before battling Rovers equalised in the second half through Jonathan Smith.

Spencer’s last-gasp effort, however, enabled grateful Harriers to pocket maximum points despite producing a below-par display in their first home Saturday game of 2010.

His smartly-executed strike prevented the game from ending in a familiar way to six out of their last eight league meetings with Forest Green – in a draw.

In September they battled out a 1-1 stalemate at the New Lawn and a similar outcome seemed on the cards until Spencer notched his second goal since arriving at Aggborough on loan from Kettering Town.

Finnigan accepted, however, that Harriers had not been at their best.

The midfielder said: “We’re delighted with the three points but not so delighted with our performance because we felt we could have played a little bit better.”

Finnigan delivered a man-of-the-match performance for Harriers and played his part in enabling Marc Goodfellow - making his home debut after playing in the previous Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Oxford United - to provide a perfect cross for Smikle to head home his ninth goal of the season.

Goodfellow’s contribution towards the 12th-minute effort gave the Aggborough faithful an early insight into his capabilities after arriving on loan from Burton Albion.

He said: “Against Oxford I got a few good chances but the final pass and final shot didn’t quite come off, but that was a good result.

“A win at home to Forest Green was good and I set one of the goals up, but we can play better than we did.”

After being put under pressure by Smikle’s early goal, relegation-threatened Rovers clawed their way back on to level terms in the 59th minute with a close range header from Smith.

Spencer, a 64th-minute substitute, then grabbed the headlines by hitting the winner in a match which allowed Harriers to extend their unbeaten run to five matches since Burr took over the Aggborough hot-seat from Mark Yates last month.

HARRIERS: Coleman 6; Courtney 6, Caines 6, Riley 6, Baker 6; McPhee 6, Finnigan 8, Bennett 5 (Knights, 64, 7), Smikle 7; Goodfellow 6, Matthews 5 (Spencer, 64, 7). Subs not used: Singh, Hadley, Sharpe.

FOREST GREEN: Ireland; Hodgkiss, Preece, O’Cearuill, McDonald; Brown; Smith, Platt (Rocastle, 46), Ameobi; Styche (Stonehouse, 66), Rankin (Thorne, 89). Subs not used: Wilkinson, Lloyd.

Referee: Peter Bankes (Merseyside).

Attendance: 1,421.