Harriers boss hails teenage star

The 17-year-old made his second appearance of the season in difficult circumstances at KitKat Crescent, with the team down to 10 men after defender Gavin Caines was sent off with just nine minutes gone.

Hayward entered the fray seven minutes later with 'in the hole' striker Darryl Knights sacrificed and gave his all to the cause, even ending up playing on with stitches in a head wound.

It followed on from his 70 minutes in the last home game against Gateshead, his first league appearance as a Harriers player.

And Yates believes it could be the first of many.

He said: "Nathan has been excellent over those two games. He is only a young boy but he came on after the sending off on Saturday and was arguably one of our best players on the pitch.

"The lad hardly ever gives the ball away, has a great understanding of the game and is doing very well. He has a bright future."

Harriers eventually went down 3-2 at York, after Brian Smikle had given them the lead in the second minute and Matthew Barnes-Homer pulled a goal back at 3-1 in the second-half.

Yates said: "It was probably one of the best performances of the season and we have been beaten, after playing away with 10-men for 81 minutes. We were the better team, we played the better football and created the better chances.

"The lads did themselves proud, but we have got to cut out these silly mistakes."

The manager had no complaints about Caines' sending off, for hauling down Richard Brodie in a goalscoring decision which led to the striker's opening goal from the penalty spot.

Yates said: "I have no problems with the sending off, apart from the fact that the lad shouldn't have been allowed to get into that position to begin with. It was poor defending."