KIDDERMINSTER boss Phil Brown says his team has the remainder of the season to show if they are ‘also-rans’ or capable of maintaining their promotion push.
Harriers went down 2-1 to Chorley at Aggborough to make it three games without a win.
And, from topping the table, Brown’s side are now sixth – eight points behind leaders Chester, albeit with three games in hand.
Harriers go to Chester on Tuesday night for a game that now has added importance.
Chorley took the lead after six minutes through Tom Carr, but Ashley Hemmings levelled 15 minutes later.
But Mark Ellis sealed the game with Chorley’s second after 67 minutes.
Brown told Harriers’ official YouTube channel: “It’s not the form that we’re in that’s concerning me. It’s the way the opposition are stifling us to a certain extent.
“The more you work at it, the more becomes a problem, you know. We dealt with it on Thursday, we dealt with it on Friday. But when it comes to Saturday, push comes to shove. We didn’t quite deal with it – and it wasn’t for the want of trying.
“I thought it was a really tough game and when we went behind, I thought maybe I’d selected the wrong formation, but we played our way into the game.
“Then we got the equaliser, and you think yourself: ‘Is it our day?’
“And it wasn’t to be. It’s almost like we can’t stand up to that. That’s what we need to do.
“I’m trying to work that out. I’ve been trying to work that out all season. When chances come along, you know, and opportunities to put the ball into dangerous areas, we’re there, and yet nothing’s coming.
“It’s not back to the drawing board by any stretch of the imagination.
“But it is a moment in this season, we’ve either got to see if we’re going to be also-rans, which I won’t accept, or we want to do something, and we’ve got 18 games to do something. And what that something is, I don’t know at the moment.
“But when games like this come along, we’ve got to stand up to the pressure of the game first and foremost, but then the tactics of the opposition and then see what we can do. And I thought we did to a certain extent, but we’ve lost the game again.”
