By Neil Ravenscroft
December 14 2004

The rumours of the past two days have been confirmed with the departure of Gary Birch to Kidderminster Harriers on a free transfer. Althought he club have made no announcement, it is on the Kiddie web site. Paul Merson's comments after the game on Saturday seemed to suggest that the club and striker Gary Birch were about to part company yesterday, but that the move would be scuppered by the injury to Matt Fryatt.

It comes as a suprise this afternoon, then, to discover that Birch has joined Stuart Watkiss' revolution at Kidderminster, along with former team mates Tom Bennett, Dean Keates and Pedro Matias.

One can only assume that Merson has a replacement lined up, either that or he needs to free up resources top make room for a defender, with the injuries to Emblen and Roper.

Either way, this does seem a strange move, given Merson's praise of the player not much more than a week and a half ago.