HARRIERS arrested their recent slump in form with a hard-fought goalless draw at in-form Spennymoor Town.

On the back of three straight defeats, Harriers journeyed to the Brewery Field to meet a Moors side that had won four of their last five.

Determined to shore up a defence that had conceded seven goals in three games, boss Russ Penn shifted the team around to shape up with three central defenders. Among them was Cliff Moyo, making his first appearance of the season after a lengthy lay-off through injury.

Moyo, who ruptured his Achilles in pre-season, managed an impressive 45 minutes before being withdrawn as a precaution after feeling tightness in his hamstring. The display played its part in an important clean sheet.

Reflecting on the result at full time, Penn said: “When you come to Spennymoor on a Tuesday night - however well you’ve been doing or however poorly you’ve been doing – and get a point and a clean sheet after the run we’ve been on is fantastic.

“I think it is a great point and I thought we thoroughly deserved the point... I thought we looked solid.

“We worked on a new shape for the game, and I thought it worked really well. After three defeats, you’ve got to go back to basics and be more solid, and we were certainly that tonight.”

Luke Simpson was arguably the busier of the two goalkeepers in the first half as he made a smart save to deny Glen Taylor from a free kick, though Amari Morgan-Smith might’ve broken the deadlock on the stroke of the interval only for his header to be blocked on the line.

The visitors were the more adventurous of the two in the second half, but still only managed half chances. Early on, Austin warmed the hands of the goalkeeper with one effort before firing one with another 12 or so minutes later.

Hemmings and Penny took aim but hit off target in the final half-hour, but neither side made a concerted effort to turn one point into three – a share of the spoils more than doing a job for differing reasons.

Harriers now head to title challengers Brackley Town on Saturday before hosting play-off rivals Chorley at Aggborough on Tuesday (22nd).

Penn added: “We’ve got to go one game at a time. [This] was one point closer to where we need to be, and we’ll move on to Brackley.”