Harriers head to Team Bath

Kidderminster manager Mark Yates is looking for a significant improvement from his side when the Harriers go to Team Bath in their final pre-season friendly tomorrow (2pm).

The manager was less than pleased with his side after they crashed at Stafford Rangers in a disappointing 1-0 midweek defeat, yet only their second in pre-season and the first against lower league opposition.

Now they travel to face a side on the same level, on opposite sides of the region, as they head to face Blue Square South new boys Team Bath, the university-affliated outfit, at Twerton Park.

For Yates, it represents their last competitive action before the big business starts against Lewes at Aggborough on Saturday week.

He said: "It just didn't happen for us at Stafford. That said, I would rather have a poor game there than when the season starts. On the whole, we have done very well in pre-season and one game will not change that.

"I let the boys get on with it at Stafford. I knew they would be a physical side and it was up to us to break through. To do that you need to play clever football, which we did not do. It was still a good test for us, because we need to know how to break down physical sides.

"We are likely to face the same sort of challlenge against certain teams in the Blue Square Premier, thats for sure."

A trip to Somerset is another pin on the calendar for the Harriers, which has already took in a tour of Devon so far. Yates is looking forward to the trip.

He said: "We actually looked into spending a week in Bath and using Team Bath's facilities at the university, before the trip to Devon came up. I was still eager to get this game into the schedule.

"I know their head coach, Andy Tilson, and know that they will be a test. We will be putting a strong side out and taking this game very seriously. Hopefully, we can get 70-80 minutes under the belts of a few players as well."