Harriers 1 St Albans 3

Mat Kendrick reports from Aggborough

WITH a host of fresh faces in the Harriers team, Aggborough was expecting the newcomers to send out a message of intent to the rest of the Conference.

They did. Unfortunately, it was the recently-promoted upstarts of St Albans City rather than the recently-recruited troops of Mark Yates who made an impression.

Harriers can make all the excuses in the world about the nine new signings that started Saturday's opener needing time to gel.

But despite the boss's refusal to criticise his players for the opening day debacle, paid professionals should not be allowed to get away with displays like that.

The pre-season optimism that has engulfed Kidderminster following a summer of exciting signings disappeared within 45 minutes.

Credit to Colin Lippiatt's St Albans side for taking the game to their hapless hosts, but they really should have been given a tougher test than this.

With only two of last year's squad in the starting X1 - Russ Penn and Michael Blackwood - Harriers performed like strangers thrown together for the day.

New midfielder Dwane Lee was the first at fault when his lax pass handed Adam Wilde possession and he fed Paul Hakim to give the Saints a ninth minute lead.

It went from bad to worse for Harriers on 21 minutes when David Theobald got the faintest of touches to glance in Matt Hann's left wing corner.

Stuart Whitehead's nightmare first competitive game as captain continued when he was adjudged to have hacked down Hakim on 43 minutes and Lee Clarke sent Scott Bevan the wrong way from the spot.

St Albans boss Lippiatt insisted afterwards that his side could have been four or five up at the break with the home defence at sixes and sevens.

Gavin Cowan, on-loan from Shrewsbury, had a debut to forget and the centre-half-cum-full-back must have wanted the ground to swallow him up when ironic cheers greeted his bizarre man-of-the-match award.

Whitehead and Mark Creighton were equally ill at ease and the experienced Jeff Kenna was the only defender to emerge with any credit.

Keeper Bevan did his reputation as a solid shot-stopper no harm and he had plenty of practice as he beat away two first half efforts from Clarke.

Harriers, meanwhile, offered little going forward with Andy White and Dean Sturridge barely on the same planet let alone the same wavelength.

Sturridge did create their best opening of the first half when his pinpoint cross was wastefully nodded wide by Blackwood, while Lee spurned a headed chance of his own when he directed Jamie McClen's corner straight at the keeper.

In stark contrast to crumbling Kidderminster, St Albans grew in confidence as the match wore on, before retreating into their shell, happy to protect their comfortable lead, after the break.

It gave Harriers more possession and they did fashion a host of presentable chances, but they lacked a killer instinct.

Blackwood scuffed a simple volley at the far post with his wrong foot, while White shinned over a gilt-edged opening from a teasing Kenna cross.

Penn, one of the few Harriers players who actually seemed interested, acted as a driving force in the middle of the park and came close with rising drives on a couple of occasions.

Harriers knew it was not to be their day on 74 minutes when Gary Elphick was sent off for stopping Penn's raid with his hand and Sturridge's weak penalty kick was easily saved by Bastock.

The St Albans number one also produced fine stops to keep out headers from Cowan and Creighton as Harriers resorted to pumping long balls forward.

With the clock ticking down, Kenna showed fellow veteran Sturridge how to strike a deadball with a slick free kick into the roof of the net in stoppage time.

But it was too little too late for humiliated Harriers and offered no consolation to fans who had had their pre-season positivity crushed in just one match.

Harriers (4-4-2) Bevan 7, Kenna 7, Cowan 4, Whitehead 5, Creighton 5, McClen 5 (Smikle 46), Blackwood 5, PENN 8, Lee 5 (Russell 68), White 5 (Reynolds 68), Sturridge 5. Subs not used: Taylor, Sedgemore.

St Albans (4-4-2) Bastock, Seeby, Flynn, Elphick, Theobald, Hann (Norris 90), Wilde (B Martin 76), Marwa, Davis, Clarke, Hakim (S Martin 68).

Referee: S Attwell (Warwickshire).

Attendance: 1,806.

Star man: Penn.