McPhee joins the Harriers ranks

The 25-year-old has signed a deal for the rest of the season after leaving troubled Blue Square rivals Weymouth, and goes straight into the squad to face his hometown club.

Russell Penn is also close to a return to the first team, after coming through 90 minutes of last night's 3-0 win at Stourbridge in the Worcestershire Senior Cup tie unscathed.

The two know each other well, after playing together as England C internationals.

With another England C cap in Michael Carr, who scored a hat-trick at Stourbridge, also waiting in the wings for another chance, Yates suddenly has an embarassment of riches.

He said: "We are delighted to have Chris on board. He comes very highly rated and will be a big part of what's going to be a big push over the final few months of the season.

"It's a short-term deal until the end of the season, with a view to us having a look at one another for next year."

Harriers are in action for the first time in 10 days, an enforced break they could have done without, after losing four out of five league games in 2009 and the last two in succession.

Yates wants that put in the past, and urged his side to put the sort of run together that will ensure they reach the finish line in the play-off chase.

He said: "This enforced break is one we could have done without, but at least it has been a chance for us to get back to basics on the training field. We need to get back to what we were doing earlier in the season. We are not out of anything yet, but we need to start putting a run together.

"We will playing Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday for pretty much the rest of the season, so that is the pace we must set for ourselves. We want to put a few things right after recent displays, so that sort of program could do us some good.

"If we do what we do best, we can get everything back up and running."

Harriers will face Eastbourne without striker Stefan Moore, who has an ankle injury.