KIDDERMINSTER Harriers boss Phil Brown says his side’s 5-0 win at South Shields was the ideal ‘marker’ for Tuesday’s crunch game with Scunthorpe United.
Harriers completed a double over the north-east side, having beaten Shields 4-0 at Aggborough earlier this season.
Ashley Hemming scored another hat-trick – and goals from Morrison and Maziar Kouhyar completed the rout.
Kidderminster are now in fourth spot, eight points behind Scunthorpe, but with a game in hand.
And Brown is already eyeing that game as a key fixture. He was able to rest some players during Saturday’s win once it was clear Harriers were comfortable.
Brown told the club’s official YouTube channel: “I don’t think we’ve got a score to settle, but I remember going to their place with a weakened team this season.
“This time, we’ll be at full strength at this moment, fingers crossed. Everybody’s come through.
“We’re going to go into Tuesday night knowing full well we can give them a game, but knowing full well that we’re at full strength. And if that’s the case, I’ll take whatever comes.
“But this result was a marker, no doubt about it. I always talk to the players and say ‘Don’t let people down, don’t don’t disappoint people.’
📺 Match Highlights from Saturday’s 5-0 victory away at @SouthShieldsFC, with goals from Morrison, Kouhyar and a Hemmings hat-trick…
⤵️ Watch on our YouTube channel#Harriers 🦅
— Kidderminster Harriers 🦅 (@khfcofficial) March 16, 2025
The traveling fans will witness that the performance from minute one was endeavour, was desire, was hard work was creativity. It had all the elements and you get a nice feeling as a manager when you get all those elements right.”
Brown insisted the Shields win did not come easily.
He added: “The strange thing was, I went into the changing room at half-time, and there was almost like an implosion of opinion. “I had to settle everybody down. It was almost like they were 2-0 down.
“But we don’t need to be panicking. And rightly enough, at half time we wanted to see a third goal and almost some breathing space.
“And then the fitness coach is asking if I can make changes. The bottom line was it was the performance from first minute to last that really got my attention. It wasn’t just the performance with the ball. It was the performance with the mentality of the group, plus they put their bodies on the line.”
