By KJ
August 7 2003

This Saturday sees the start of another season at Aggborough. Harriers kick off their 4th league campaign with the visit of Mansfield Town.

THE BIG KICK OFF

Kidderminster Harriers start their 4th season in the Football League with a visit from Mansfield Town this Saturday(9th August). Who knows how we’ll get on after a reasonable pre season. Harriers have added to their squad this week, with two strikers coming in. John Williams has signed a 3 month deal after a trial spell, whilst fellow front man Andy Bishop joins on loan, initially for a month. Of course Bishop had a successful loan spell at Kiddie last term and was eager to return, turning down a possible move to Scotland. Hopefully these tow will add a bit of firepower to our attack.

Stags boss, Keith Curle

Mansfield will be making their return to the 3rd division after one season in the 2nd division. Manger Keith Curle was appointed during last season and eventually failed to keep the Stags up. It seemed that Mansfield’s main problem last season was defending, losing many high scoring games. One player who wont be making his debut against his former club is Matt Gadsby, who will be out at least till the Darlington game. However two former Harriers will be lining up for the Stags. Former Loanee Colin Larkin is expected to start and midfielder Neil Mackenzie is in the squad. Larkin can be a threat with his pace although sometimes his finishing can leave a lot to be desired. To me he approaches goal like Michael Owen but sometimes he finishes like Bill Owen. Neil Mackenzie is another enigma. An all action midfielder, his career has been full of highs and lows. He started with Stoke City before moving to Cambridge. From there he had a brief spell at Aggboro and probably my best memory of him was his stunning goal against Barnet. This was during our first season in the League and he was reported to have signed a new deal in the summer of 2001. He then reversed his decision and moved on to 2nd Division Blackpool from where he joined Mansfield.

Colin Larkin

So a difficult one to predict, I’m going for a high scoring game but not sure which way it will go. On the Clix to Harriers prediction league I put us down to lose 4-3, however I think it could go either way. Of course we will be looking to maintain our impressive opening day record in the League, where we remain unbeaten since joining in 2000. Of course we won out first ever game against Torquay 2-0 and then followed that up with a 1-0 success over Scunthorpe. Last season saw us lose out 100% record with a draw against Lincoln. Roll on Saturday.

JUMPJET JOURNAL NEWS

I have now updated the pen pictures to include all the new players. Also we have a new logo and again thanks to our friends from the Walsall sportnetwork site. Over the season as well we will keep you up to date with the stats with results and line ups etc. Finally a quick thanks to Clix to Harriers, who have included the JJJ in their links, cheers guys. Again if you want to write anything for the Jumpjet Journal then get in touch. Either leave a message on the boards or contact us via e mail via Jumpjet Krew link on right hand side of page.

POLL RESULTS

We asked who was your favourite pre season opponent, out of the local big clubs, and the Villa have finally won something, the results were: Villa 4 votes,WBA 3 votes, Walsall 2 votes,Blues 1 vote with Wolves not getting one!