Kidderminster Harriers 1 King's Lynn Town 1 - Report

After failing to find the net in their previous five league outings they breathed a huge sigh of relief thanks to a first half goal from Ashley Hemmings.

His strike, however, was not enough to stop the high-flying Linnets from sharing the spoils with an equaliser from the penalty spot by Gold Omotayo.

The frustrating deadlock leaves manager Russ Penn’s mid-table side without a win in their last seven league encounters.

Kidderminster, trounced 3-0 at King’s Lynn earlier in the season, made three changes from the side which lost 2-0 at Chester the previous Tuesday with Christian Dibble, Zak Brown and Reiss McNally all returning to the starting line-up. Alex Penny was ruled out through injury.

Harriers forced their first corner after just four minutes, but captain Shane Byrne’s near post kick was cleared without causing any problems for the visiting defence.

King’s Lynn responded a couple of minutes later by forcing a corner of their own, but the kick was firmly headed away by perfectly positioned Kyle Morrison.

Harriers, however, were soon back up field and chalked up a long awaited goal in the tenth minute when a fine low cross from Caleb Richards was spilled by goalkeeper Sam Blair to enable man-of-the-match Hemmings to safely knock the ball into the net. It was his eighth goal of the campaign.

King’s Lynn battled back onto level terms in the 18th minute when Omotayo hammered home a penalty which had been awarded for a foul by Joe Foulkes on Olly Scott.

Harriers set about trying to get their noses back in front, but had to be on their guard in defence on the half hour mark when the Linnets forced a couple of quick-fire corners which both came to nothing.

The hosts soon returned up-field and Blair was called on to save a low shot on the turn by Hemmings who shortly afterwards was not too far off target with a well struck long range volley.

Kai Lissimore also fired over in the closing minutes of the first half which ended with Kidderminster bundling the ball into the net, but the referee blew for a foul on Blair.

King’s Lynn opened the second period with a decent raid which resulted in a shot from Josh Barrett skidding narrowly wide of the target.

Soon after the alert Dibble pulled off an excellent save to deny Theo Widdrington which led to Omotayo having a hooked follow-up shot cleared off the line by Richards.

Harriers fought back with a teasing free kick into the danger zone by Byrne which reached unmarked Hemmings whose close range header landed on top of the net. Minutes later he curled a free kick just wide of the far post.

At the other end Dibble saved low down from Widdrington before substitute Amari Morgan-Smith had a last-gasp shot kicked off the line by Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Teams

Kidderminster|: Dibble; McNally, Morrison, Knight-Percival; Foulkes, Richards; Byrne, Lissimore (Owen-Evans, 71); Brown, Hemmings (Bearne, 88); Freemantle (Owen-Evans 71). Subs not used: Palmer, Leak.

King’s Lynn: Blair; Crowther, Coulson, Fleming; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Scott; Clunan, Widdrington, Hughes (Ponticelli, 58) Barrett (Cosgrave, 58); Omotayo. Subs not used: Dixon-Hodge, Stephens, Jones.

Referee: Matthew Scholes.

Attendance: 1,865 (78 away fans).