MARK Yates paid tribute to Iyseden Christie after the top scorer played through the pain barrier to shoot Harriers into the FA Trophy third round.

Christie's 31st minute goal was enough to condemn Exeter to only their second defeat of the season and extend Kidderminster's eight-game unbeaten run.

But the 11-goal striker was only passed fit an hour before kick off after having an X-ray on his injured foot on Friday.

Despite Christie's painful problem, Yates had no hesitation in recalling the sharpshooter who missed the New Year's Day win over Cambridge and last weekend's victory at Vauxhall Motors.

"That's Iyseden's first game of the year after a couple of game's break and I thought he was excellent," said the manager, "His hold up play, work-rate and the quality of his finish were excellent, "There were bits of quality in a gritty performance and the goal was certainly one of those."

Yates admitted that it was touch and go whether Christie would be fit enough to replace Luke Reynolds in the Harriers attack after a training ground injury on Thursday.

"He took a knock with the last kick in training and the last thing I needed on Friday was a phonecall saying he was struggling," he added.

"We sent him to hospital just as a precaution because we wanted to be sure the problem with his foot wasn't too serious.

"We decided to give him a pain-killing injection because we knew there wouldn't be a problem and we knew he'd come through.

"He can handle pain, he's a big strong lad. Anything more serious and we wouldn't have risked him but it was just a bang."