Kidderminster Harriers F.C.
Kidderminster Harriers Football Club are a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team competes in the National League North, the sixth level of the English football league system.
Formed in 1886, Harriers have spent their entire history at Aggborough Stadium. They have won the Worcestershire Senior Cup a record 27 times and are the only club from the county ever to have played in the English Football League. Founder members of the Birmingham & District League in 1889, they merged with Kidderminster Olympic the next year and entered the Midland League as Kidderminster F.C., though folded due to financial difficulties in March 1891. Kidderminster Harriers reverted to amateur status and rejoined the Birmingham & District League, though it would take until 1937–38 for them to claim their first league title, which they retained the following year. They joined the Southern League in 1948, though reverted to the Birmingham & District League in 1960. They won four further league titles: 1964–65, 1968–69, 1969–70 and 1970–71. Harriers switched to the Southern League Division One North in 1972 and were promoted to the Alliance Premier League at the end of the 1982–83 season.
Kidderminster Harriers won the FA Trophy in 1987 and were crowned Conference champions in 1993–94, though Graham Allner's team were denied a place in the Football League due to the state of Aggborough. The club improved the stadium and were admitted after winning the title again under Jan Mølby's stewardship in 1999–2000. They remained in the Football League for five seasons, finishing as high as tenth in the Third Division in 2002, before being relegated out of League Two three years later. They finished second in the Conference in 2012–13, but were beaten in the play-off semi-finals, and were relegated from the National League in 2016. They qualified for the National League North play-offs in 2017, 2018 and 2022 before winning the play-off final in 2023 to return to the National League after seven years.
History
Kidderminster Harriers were formed in 1886 from a highly successful athletics and rugby union club that had existed since 1877. In July 1880 the Athletics club amalgamated with the local Clarence rugby club to become 'Kidderminster Harriers and Football Club'. Matches were played at White Wickets on the Franche Road in Kidderminster. 1885-6 was the last season played as a rugby club and the Harriers switched to Association rules for the next season.Olympic and Kidderminster F.C.
Playing games at Chester Road Harriers' first game was 18 September 1886, away to Wilden, winning 2–1. The town saw a rival team start up as Kidderminster Olympic in 1887, rapidly becoming one of the best sides in the area. In 1887–88 the club started playing its matches at Aggborough.Both Olympic and Harriers were founder members of the Birmingham and District League in 1889, Olympic won the league in 1890, with Harriers runners-up. Both sides regularly attracted crowds of 2–4,000, with the local derbies seeing over 7,000 attending. Owing to their success soon after both Olympic and Harriers were subject to allegations of 'professionalism' and illegal payments to players, although the League Committee let off both clubs with a warning about future conduct.
In 1890 the two clubs amalgamated as Kidderminster F.C. on a full professional basis, the new club being admitted to the Midland League which had been formed in 1889. The club became the first from the town to enter the FA Cup and after winning 4 qualifying-round games, reached the first round proper. They lost 3–1 away to Darwen but protested the result because of the poor state of the pitch. Their protest was upheld and the tie was replayed a week later, again at Darwen, where Darwen won 13–0. However the club found things difficult financially as a fully professional club, and, with debts of £369, resigned from the league and was wound up in March 1891.
Birmingham League
The club reverted to amateur status in the Birmingham and District League the following season as Kidderminster Harriers. The club again reached the 1st Round of the FA Cup in 1906–07, losing to Oldham Athletic away 5–0. In 1910 the then current England international full-back Jesse Pennington signed for Harriers after a dispute with his then club West Bromwich Albion. He played one game before the dispute was resolved and he returned to Albion.The twenties were hard going for the club as poor form on the pitch and financial problems off it took their toll. Harriers did manage a League runners-up place in 1924–25. In this season Harriers made national headlines by signing Stanley Fazackerley, who had been the first £5,000 transfer in English football and scorer of the FA Cup Final winning goal for Sheffield United in 1915. After a pay dispute, he had been given 14 days notice by his then club Wolverhampton Wanderers and had returned to the public house he managed in the city, where a Harriers fan drinking there overheard the news and quickly contacted the Harriers Secretary. The then Wolves captain George Getgood, also in contractual dispute at the time, also signed for Harriers in a double swoop.
The 1927–28 season saw another accusation of bribery, this time against secretary Pat Davis by Cradley Heath. During an investigation Davis admitted he had offered Burton Town players a ten shillings bonus if they managed to beat Worcester City in the last match of the season. The match was drawn so the bonus was never paid. The case made the national newspapers and Pat Davis was temporarily suspended from all duties.
Harriers proved a rich source of young quality players picked up by professional football clubs at this time, those moving to bigger clubs including full back Billy Blake, winger Fred Leedham, Dennis Jennings and forward Norman Brookes. In 1935–36 a new scoring record for the club was set, with Billy Boswell scoring 64 goals in a single season.
Southern League
Harriers did not win the West Midlands League until 1938, finishing the season undefeated. They moved to the Southern League the following year, but played just two games because of the onset of World War II.They rejoined the Southern League in 1948. Their first game was a 1–1 draw with Chingford Town in front of 3,889. Future Football Association General Secretary Ted Croker was a Harriers player during the early 1950s, as was future England international striker Gerry Hitchens. Harriers became the first team to host a floodlit FA Cup match, when on 14 September 1955 they played Brierley Hill Alliance in a preliminary round replay, which Harriers won 4–2. By 1956–57 the club was again in financial difficulties and after several seasons of struggle in 1960 the club voluntarily dropped back down to the Birmingham League.
During the 1964–72 era Harriers won the West Midland League four times, and the various County Senior Cups eight times. Brendan Wassall arrived at Aggborough and debuted on 17 October 1962 against Banbury Spencer. He went on to make 686 appearances up until 1975, and scored 269 goals. His son, Darren, played for Nottingham Forest, Birmingham City and Derby County.
In 1963 Peter Wassall joined the Harriers on the advice of his brother Brendan after spells with Wolves, Aston Villa and Atherstone Utd.
After a season in midfield he switched to play up front and went on to score a total of 448 goals in 621 games for the Harriers.
He joined Hereford Utd briefly in 1971 but returned to Aggborough a year later.
They were back to the Southern League by 1972–73 as part of Division One North, one level under the Southern League Premier.
Conference
Under player-manager Jon Chambers in 1983, Harriers were promoted to the Alliance Premier League after finishing second to AP Leamington, who were refused entry on ground facility issues.After a poor start to the first season in the Alliance, AP Leamington manager Graham Allner was appointed manager, marking the start of a 16-year association with the club. Despite not playing in Wales, they were invited to play in the Welsh Cup through the 1970s and 1980s, reaching the final in 1986 and again in 1989.
In July 1985, Allner signed striker Kim Casey from Gloucester City for £2,500. He previously played for Sutton Coldfield and AP Leamington. In his first season for the Harriers, Casey scored 73 goals in 69 games, a club record, and netted 47 the following season. He was transferred to Cheltenham Town in August 1990 for £25,000 before re-joining Harriers briefly in July 1995. For much of the eighties and nineties Casey partnered Paul Davies up front, Davies eventually logging 307 career goals in 656 games over 13 years for the club, while Casey hit nearly 200 goals in six seasons.
In 1989, Kidderminster Harriers launched their first Youth training scheme – a first, because the club was still playing non-league football in the Vauxhall Conference. The first crop of players were Ian Clarke, Ryan Rankin, Willie Bache, Alan Knott, Richard Congrave, Russel Dodds, Craig Gillett and Justin Taylor. The intake was coached by Graeme McKenzie and gained instance success finishing runners-up in their first season in the Midlands Floodlit league behind Hereford United.
In 1994, Harriers were Conference champions but were controversially refused promotion due to the Football League's tightened fire safety regulations for stadiums after the Bradford City stadium fire. Aggborough's main stand was of wooden construction and, despite assurances a new cantilever stand would be ready for the new season, and considerable West Midlands media support, the Football League rejected Harriers' promotion. Ironically, the ground hosted an 8,000 crowd without any problems for the visit of West Ham United in that year's 5th round FA Cup.
Harriers finished second to Macclesfield Town in 1997, but then finished in the bottom half in each of the next two seasons.
Harriers received the biggest sell-on fee for a former non-league club, picking up £700,000 when Lee Hughes joined Coventry City in August 2001. Harriers had sold Hughes to West Bromwich Albion in 1998 and under the sell-on clause negotiated by manager Allner at the time received 15% of any further transfer fee. This was activated when Hughes moved to Coventry City for a reported £5 million.