Harriers boss unhappy after cup exit

Kidderminster Harriers manager Steve Burr told his players they had missed an opportunity to catch his eye after crashing out of the Worcestershire Senior Cup.

The holders were dumped out of the competition at the first hurdle in the quarter-finals last night, after local rivals Worcester ran out 3-1 winners at Aggborough.

Harriers went behind after just two minutes of the game to Matt Birley's opener, before David Hankin levelled following up after Tom Shaw's penalty had been saved by goalkeeper Tim Sandercombe.

A second-half brace from striker Danny Glover settled the tie.

Burr was left furious with his side after the game, which was essentially made up of first-team squad regulars and just one youth team player in Nathan DeMonte.

The likes of Shaw, Mark Albrighton, Ollie Thorne, Callum Gittings and Nick Wright were all hoping to stake claims for a recall to the starting line-up, only the team to slip to an under-par defeat.

And the manager is disappointed that none of them really managed to perform ahead of Saturday's Blue Square Premier home game against Eastbourne.

He said: "It's disappointing - we made a lot of changes but, even so, we asked the lads before the game to put themselves in the shop window for Saturday.

"Unfortunately we didn't get that. In the second-half there were too many errors and once they got their second and third goals we were chasing the game."

One ray of light from last night's performance for Burr was the competitive debut of DeMonte, who slotted in for 90 minutes at right-back and impressed for Harriers.

The 18-year-old is rated as one of the brightest prospects in the youth ranks at Aggborough and his display brought words of encouragement from the manager.

Burr said: "I was really pleased with him and I thought he did really well.

"It was a big plus for us to be able to have a look at him."