06-07-22 – News – It all starts at Blyth Spartans

The 2022-23 season for Kidderminster Harriers will get underway on August 6th with our longest trip of the season all the way to Blyth Spartans, somewhere North of Newcastle. Last season we kicked off the season away at York City and won there in their new stadium so, in a way, we don’t seem to mind travelling to the other end of the country on opening day.

Apart from the usual Christmas fare when we go to Hereford FC on Boxing Day and come back to Aggborough on New Years Day then we have our August Bank Holiday game at home to newly promoted Peterborough Sports on the 27th and then pop over to Brackley Town on the Monday. All seems good so far.

For Easter weekend we’re at home to another newly promoted team, Buxton, on Good Friday (April 7th) and then on Easter Monday it’s off to everyones favourite team AFC Fylde for what hopefully should be a top of the table clash and we’ll outnumber their fans two to one.

Other games of interest are the Scarborough weekender on September 10th and then get back in time for Fylde coming to us on the Tuesday evening while our other local derby against AFC Telford Utd will see us going over there on October 15th while they come to us towards the end of the season on April 15th. Both Saturday fixtures.

The cup games this season see us enter the FA Cup on September 17th while the Trophy gets underway on November 19th.

The season will end in a glorious shower of joy and tickertape when we’re crowned as Champions at home to Kettering Town on April 29th. 

In other news:

Since my last update a few weeks ago we’ve had some expected and unexpected news. Geraldo Bajrami has, as expected, left the club to sign a two year contract with Notts County but, sadly, he’s taken Sammy Austin along with him. Most fans are of the opinion that Baj should be playing at a higher level, as should Sammy but it appears that County are the one’s with money burning a hole in their back pockets having already bought in a host of new signings.

As it should be we wish both of them the best of good fortune at Meadow Lane and hopefully they’ll fire them back into the Football League where they truthfully belong.

Also gone are Omari Sterling-James and Jaiden White. OSJ has moved down South for some strange reason and has joined up with Ebbsfleet Utd (another club with holey pockets). Jaiden hasn’t turned up anywhere yet but will soon no doubt but possibly at a more local club like Halesowen Town.

Coming in for us is someone that the fans had all been hoping for but never thought it would actually happen. Yesterday Shane Byrne joined us, on a one year contract, following his departure from Boston Utd. He’d only signed for them this time last season from Brackley Town and it was hoped, by Bostonians, that he would have been staying a bit longer. Their loss is our gain and he should be the creative midfielder we had all been calling for.

Also arriving is Krystian Pearce. The veteran defender has signed a one year deal with us following his release from Hereford FC at the end of the season. If he stays clear of red cards he could be a good acquisition for us.

On the friendly front we now have another Premier clubs U21’s to look forward to seeing in addition to the Manchester Utd variant that was mentioned in my previous newsletter. They’ll both be played within four days of each other so that should be a good time to be a Harriers fan and is something to look forward too.

There have been some other games added to the friendly programme and that can be found here.

Photo © KHFC