HARRIERS hit Southport for six in a clinical display and 6-0 win at Aggborough that appeared to get their play-off campaign back on track in style.

The Reds have been within the top places in the division for the entire campaign, but a run of one win in nine prior to this match had threatened to put a real dampener on their plans for the play-offs.

A superb showing – including four second half goals – will certainly help banish that sluggishness, with Harriers too much for the Sandgrounders to handle as they fell to a heavy defeat that does their own play-off aspirations no favours.

Back in the starting line-up, Ashley Hemmings bagged two of the goals including the first of the day as he swept home a superb cross from Matty Stenson, the on-loan FC Halifax man who was making his first start for the club.

Before the half hour Harriers made it 2-0 as Hemmings turned provider who chipped the ball over the goalkeeper and into the net, giving his side a commanding lead at the break.

Far from looking to rest on that, the hosts blew their visitors away in the second half, Stenson setting Hemmings up for an arrowed finish to make it 3-0, before Amari Morgan-Smith ensured he stayed at the top of the scoring charts with his 15th of the season, tucking away a finish after Cameron Mason saved his header.

From there it was down to two of Harriers’ substitutes to finish off the scoring. Ethan Freemantle, inside the final minutes of normal time, charged down Mason’s clearance to get the reward of finishing into an empty net, before Cliff Moyo’s bullet header deep into added time put further gloss on the result and overall showing.

The goal was doubly sweet for Moyo in particular – it was his first of the season on what was a first outing on home soil since an injury last summer.

Reflecting on the result, boss Russ Penn kept a key sense of context, stressing: “I don’t get carried away when we lose games, and I’m certainly not going to get carried away today, but I’ll tell you what; it feels a lot better tonight.

“I haven’t slept all week so hopefully I can get a good eight or nine hours inside me tonight!

“We have beat teams a few times quite comfortably… they have got it in them, because they’re a confidence team.

“We played a little bit different today and were a bit more direct, but sometimes you need that at this level, and you’ve got to build momentum, and we certainly did that today.”

Of new-boy Stenson’s showing on the day, Penn added: “He has got plenty of energy, he is robust, and he has that little bit of spike in him as well which is why we brought him to the football club.

“I thought [he and Morgan-Smith] they linked up really well – you could tell he was really enjoying himself.”

Harriers head to Chester on Good Friday before hosting Kettering at Aggborough on Easter Monday (3pm)