Kidderminster Harriers 3 Radcliffe 0 - Report

They killed off their newly-promoted visitors thanks to second half goals from Zac Brown, Maz Kouhyar and Ashley Hemmings.

All three goals came in the space of five deadly minutes.

It was an ideal way to launch their season at Aggborough after winning just four home National League matches last term when they relegated from non-league’s top flight.

Kidderminster boss Phil Brown kept the same side which secured a 2-1 opening day victory at Darlington the previous Saturday.

They soon got into their stride and, after an unproductive corner, the visitors’ goalkeeper Mateusz Hewelt was called on to block a close range from Hemmings.

Radcliffe responded by forcing a corner which was narrowly headed over the bar by Josh Wardle.

Shortly afterwards Harriers suffered a setback when striker Amari Morgan-Smith was forced to leave the field after appearing to pick up a head injury in a collision and was replaced by Ben Beresford, who came on for his debut.

His early departure heralded a quiet period in play, although both sides gained corners which came to nothing.

Harriers produced a promising raid soon after the half hour mark when a fine run by Kouhyar enabled him to cross to Maliq Cadogan whose goalbound shot was blocked.

A minute later Cadogan had a shot fizz narrowly wide before Brown tried his luck from nearly 20 yards with a drive which flew over the bar.

Shortly before the interval Cadogan had a pile-driver slam against the post before Hemmings saw his effort smartly pushed over the bar by Hewelt.

Then, in first half stoppage time, Beresford had a header fall just off target.

A few minutes into the second period Radcliffe were awarded a free kick in front of goal, but Josh Hancock’s powerful strike hit the Aggborough defensive wall and went out for a fruitless corner.

Battling Harriers, however, broke the deadlock in the 52nd minute when Brown charged down a clearance and ran on to ram the ball past Hewelt.

Two minutes later it was 2-0 when Kouhyar found space inside the area and rounded the ‘keeper before stroking the ball into the back of the net.

Rampant Harriers completed the scoring on 57 minutes when Hemmings took full advantage of a through ball to fire past helpless Hewelt.

Kidderminster: Dibble; Foulkes, Penny, Downing, Richards; Summerfield (Davis, 71), Cadogan, Brown; Kouhyar, Hemmings (Thompson, 84), Morgan-Smith (Beresford, 13). Subs not used: Palmer, McNally.

Radcliffe: Hewelt, Jackson (Thompson, 73), Duxbury (Morgan, 73), Smith, Hancock, Hulme (Campbell, 81), Oyibo (Navarro, 81), Roscoe, Wardle, Walker (Dudley, 73), Sargent.

Referee: Harry Jones.

Attendance: 2,504 (56 away fans).