Flowers in the race for Harriers job

Kidderminster Harriers chairman Barry Norgrove has confirmed that former Wolves and England keeper Tim Flowers is in the running for the vacant manager's job.

The 42-year-old was among the names on a list of 50 applicants that the chairman will sift through this week, before a shortlist of the main contenders will be finalised at a board meeting on Friday night.

Harriers will then start the interview process next week, with a view to having a new man in place by the time the team go to Crawley in the Blue Square Premier on Saturday week.

Flowers is a name from left-field with no experience of non-league football or as a manager, which Norgrove pinpointed as essential for the job, but has backroom pedigree at the highest level.

The 11-cap international served Leicester and Manchester City as a goalkeeping coach, and was assistant boss to Iain Dowie at two Championship clubs in Coventry and QPR.

Thus, the chairman is refusing to rule him out.

He said: "Tim is a name among the applicants and he is as serious a contender as anyone else. No-one is out of the running. We will look at everybody sensibly and it's about speaking to them after that. Then we can go from there.

"We need to get a manager in place by the end of next week, that is the time-frame we are looking at."

Believed to be the front-runners for the job are former Harriers defender Jeff Kenna - who won the Premier League with Flowers at Blackburn in 1995 - and Jim Harvey, who left his post as manager of Chester on Sunday night.

Harvey has local links and lives in Hereford, and was in touch with Harriers yesterday to re-affirm his interest in the post.

But Norgrove confirmed Steve Burr, manager of Stalybridge, has not been in touch.

He said: "Jim has applied, he called me yesterday to see what was happening in relation to the job. Steve Burr is under contract at Stalybridge, we have always known that and we haven't had an application from him.

"Whether he is particularly interested or not I wouldn't know."

Norgrove also confirmed caretaker boss John Finnigan will be at least interviewed, after coping admirably in his first managerial role since Mark Yates left for Cheltenham before Christmas.

The chairman said: "John is a serious contender, we have been pleased with him. We will be speaking to him about the job, that is for definite."

Harriers have been drawn at either local rivals Worcester or Carshalton Athletic in the third round of the FA Trophy on January 30.

The Aggborough men have already seen their second round tie against Blue Square South Lewes called off twice, tonight the latest to fall to the weather, with the game now due at home next Tuesday night.