| Date: 20-05-25 Back to the future: Murray’s Mercedes arrives at the Harriers |
By Harry Taylor
Former midfielder returns to Kidderminster as manager more than 20 years after Football League spell at club.
With the arrival of a silver Mercedes in the Aggborough car park, a flash of leather trainers and a lingering shot of the back of his head, the former Harriers midfielder Adam Murray was announced as the club’s new manager today.
The video on the Harriers’ social media, nearly a fortnight after our former manager Phil Brown left the club, confirmed the news after Murray had become the firm favourite to take the job in recent days. Murray, who played for the club during the 2003/2004 season, joins from managing Eastbourne Borough in the National League South, where he finished just a point away from winning the league on the final day before losing in the semis of the playoffs.
Sound familiar? Harriers’ fans with long memories will recall Murray playing for club after what had been a difficult time for him. A period of alcoholism during his spell as a Premier League midfielder at Derby County in his early 20’s led him to be admitted to the Priory Clinic aged 21. After a spell in rehab, Murray was signed by then manager Jan Molby. He had a brief loan spell, before signing on a permanent basis later in the season as the club’s highest earner – just missing out on the club’s run to the FA Cup Third Round against Wolves.
The dynamic midfielder looked a cut above and scored some impressive goals as he was part of the team’s successful survival bid. However, at the end of the season, amid the infamous “budget for relegation”, he was released. Molby told fans it was a football decision, and we still had Dean Bennett. Bennett too left and the rest is history.
From there Murray had a fruitful playing career. He was part of the Carlisle United side which bounced back from relegation to win the Conference playoffs, and then the League Two title the next season. He was also on the losing side at the Football League Trophy final (LDV’s vintage that year, if you’re interested) in the same year for the Cumbrians. He later captained Mansfield Town to the Conference title, just pipping the Harriers into second place.
Murray then moved into management, becoming the youngest manager in the Football League when he took over at Mansfield in 2014. By his own admission, after 103 games at the helm, he felt out of his depth, and aside from a brief spell at Boston United he worked as an assistant to Valérien Ismaël at Barnsley, West Bromwich Albion and Turkish giants Besiktas.
Craving the hotseat again he was appointed as manager at the Harriers’ perennial thorn-in-the-side AFC Fylde where he won the National League North but left with the side bottom of the league above in the October of the following season.
Latterly he was at Eastbourne Borough, leading them to oh-so-near the National League South title before finishing a point short of the league title. He left owing to the journey from his Derby home – and despite links about an Assistant Manager’s job at Blackburn Rovers, he’s arrived at Aggborough.
He told the Harriers’ Youtube channel he has always had an eye on the Harriers and had long hoped to land the job one day. Thankfully for him, and hopefully us, the timings have worked out.
Richard Lane’s appointment is a solid one. Somebody with experience managing at this level, relative success (albeit with a bigger budget), and knows the club. It looks as though he might play a similar 3-5-2 system to Brown, but otherwise it’s hard to know what to expect. Similarly it’s unclear who his assistant will be. Interestingly Stuart Watkiss, who managed Murray at Mansfield and had an unsuccessful spell at Harriers, helped him at Eastbourne. Could he too return to Aggborough?
Top of Murray’s to-do list will be running the rule over the players who got so close last year and trying to persuade the better ones to stay. Two players who will be sticking around with him are Ashley Hemmings and Amari Morgan-Smith who have got a year’s extension.
It remains to be seen what role Morgan-Smith will play, and whether Murray will want to keep him as captain, but there remains widespread scepticism about whether “Morgs” scores enough goals to justify his striking role – especially if he leads the line alone. A backup perhaps, but many will be raising an eyebrow if he’s seen as go-to starter for next season. Hemmo on the other hand will be hoping to bag more goals, and lead Harriers back to the National League.
As for Adam Murray it’s now going to weigh heavy on his shoulders as to whether he can get us the promotion that Phil Brown failed to achieve for us this season. It probably won’t be happening next season with a major re-build needed but with our fanbase it’ll have to happen sooner than later.
Photo © KHFC