KIDDERMINSTER Harriers begin life back in the top tier of non-league football on Saturday with the visit of Woking to Aggborough (3:00pm). 

Pre-season concluded with a goalless draw at AFC Telford this past Saturday, with Russ Penn’s charges now looking ahead to their first game at this level since 2016.

With an unforgettable promotion from National League North now in the history books, Harriers return to a very different National League. 

Big guns Chesterfield, Oldham Athletic, Barnet, Southend and Hartlepool are all among this season’s opposition for the Reds – just months after it looked as though another season at Step 2 was inevitable. 

An incredible nine-match winning run propelled Harriers up, though, ensuring the patience shown in the club’s management team by Owner, Richard Lane, paid off.

Lane himself has said his belief in Penn and assistant, Jimmy O’Connor, remains as high as ever.

He explained: “I don’t do social media. People feed me back information, but the focus really is picking the right people to do the job, and we believe one hundred percent still that they’re the right people for the job.

“They have an extended contract [and] we did that for one reason – we believe in them.

“They’re learning. They’re two young men and this is their first job in management, and they’re learning very quickly. 

“We continue to trust them and let’s see what they can achieve this season.”

While there will undoubtedly be an adjustment period for Harriers, it seems unlikely there will be any relaxing of ambitions at Aggborough.

Setting a clear picture of the task ahead for those in the dugout in the coming years, Lane added: “They have great expectations of themselves, how they can learn and how they can develop on the job.

“Thay have the same expectations of me, and we have a three-year plan to get out of this league… the feel around this stadium and the whole of Kidderminster is that we’re still bigger than this league we’re in.

“If we can follow in the footsteps of Wrexham and Notts County from last season, that’s what we’ll do in the next two or three seasons.”

Lane, the son of former Harriers Director Graham ‘Rocky’ Lane, assumed control of the club as Owner in 2019.

A run to the FA Cup Fourth Round and promotion has followed, with the businessman – who also owns leading technology firm EBC Group – admitting: “You’ve got to enjoy the highs and lows, and over the last couple of seasons we’ve had some very big highs.

“It wasn’t our goal to just get promoted. With the community and the council meetings we’ve been having, it demonstrates how important the football club is for Kidderminster… for people to enjoy themselves.

“You’ve heard Russ and Jimmy talk about the ‘twelfth man’ a lot – we want to push and push, and hopefully that means points and getting higher in the league, and we go again.”