Penn eyes Harriers league return

The England C international is pencilled in for competitive action for the first time after a month out with a knee injury, in the Worcestershire Senior Cup at Stourbridge on Thursday night (7:45pm).

Harriers are now not back in league action until Saturday at Aggborough, after their planned trip to Wrexham tonight was called off, due to the Dragons' having to play an FA Trophy replay.

Penn had no chance of being involved in that anyway, but Saturday is possible - depending on what happens at Stourbridge.

He said: "I am back in light training, which is great. I hope to be back on the training field this week and should play some part on Thursday. I have been working with the physio for a month to get to this point, so here's hoping it works out.

"Saturday may come a bit too soon for me, I might be OK to be in the 16 but I doubt I would start anyway. I have targeted playing some part, even to be in the squad after a period out would be a big boost for me.

"It all depends on how Thursday goes and then it's up to the gaffer - we'll have to see what he thinks."

Penn returns to a side who have been dumped out of the FA Cup, FA Trophy and have lost four out of five Blue Square Premier games in 2009.

But the midfielder is eager to look forward rather than dwell on what has passed - and he reckons he knows what Harriers will need to reach the holy grail.

He said: "We have had this bad little run, but thats football for you. We may have had this blip, but we are still there or thereabouts in the play-off's. We have just got to keep driving on - hopefully I can add a bit when I come back.

"We have had a bad month, there's no getting away from it. We have 16 games left to play, I think we need nine wins to make it to the play-off's really.

"There's nothing wrong with the players, they are the same squad that did so well for us in the first half of the season."