CHAIRMAN Colin Gordon labelled Kidderminster’s players as “abysmal” after seeing the club slump to its lowest league finish for 43 years.

Harriers, under the guidance of player/coach Jimmy O’Connor for the final two games, suffered a last-day defeat to Guiseley.

The 2-1 loss at Aggborough saw Reds finish 10th in National League North, which is the lowest since an 18th place finish in the 1975/76 Southern League Division One North season.

Gordon is determined to get the next manager appointment right but pulled no punches about his players after a disappointing campaign that saw previous boss Neil MacFarlane leave in January and Mark Yates move on last week.

He said: “Today was a reflection of the whole season. Some elements of control, some elements of good football but no intensity, no idea of how to play quickly or to play forward.

“Some of the players think they’re far better than they actually are and they’re going to have a rude awakening because I don’t know where they go from here.

“I just spoke to them all in the dressing room. Where do you go after Kidderminster Harriers?

“They’ve got to wake up and realise that this is their only chance of earning a living and being successful in the game.

“I’m disappointed with the players. The players have been abysmal, they haven’t been very well coached all season, the messages are not getting through and we’re a shadow of the team we were two years ago.”

The boss also underlined exactly what he will be demanding from the next manager in the Harriers hotseat.

“Rest assured, the man who comes in will do his job and will work hard, and that’s all I ask for but that’s what I’ve not seen.

“We were blessed and I don’t think people realised how blessed we were to have someone like John Eustace.

“He was in at seven in the morning and left at seven at night and will see four games a week.

“I just don’t think people in football want to work hard anymore. It baffles me because if you do well here then perhaps you can go on and manage in the Championship.

“I’m watching people going home before me, before the players sometimes and it’s infuriating.

“How on earth can a chairman go and watch more games of the opposition in a season than any of the managers he’s had in the club?

“All I want for people is to work their socks off to be as good as they can be.

“That’s the standard that’s been set and whoever comes into this job now has to follow. If they don’t, they won’t be here.”

On the new appointment process, he added: “We’ve got a shortlist and we’ve had a shortlist now for five or six weeks and everyone that needs to be contacted has been contacted.

“Let’s start planning for going forward. We can’t put up with this rubbish again, and we won’t.

“We know where we’ve failed, we’re not going to fail again and we are going to work our hardest to make sure this football club succeeds, because the standards we’ve set this season are not good enough.”