THREE ON THE SPIN FOR PHIL’S HARRIERS

CALEB Richards’ second-half winner secured Kidderminster Harriers a third consecutive win and maintained their 100% winning start to life under new boss Phil Brown.

Wing-back Richards struck six minutes into the second-half to move the resurgent Harriers to within a point of safety.

Delighted Brown told The NLP: “Coming to a club that inherited a new set of players that we’ve added two new players [Sam Bellis and Aaron Harper-Bailey] – we are slowly but surely growing the philosophy of what we need to do to win football games.

“The goal came unsurprisingly to me because we’ve asked both wingbacks – if one crosses the ball and the other one locks the back door, so if the ball comes out of the righthand side from Ashley Hemmings, I want Richards in the penalty area with the other three strikers.

“When I first arrived, everyone said when we concede a goal – we haven’t got a goal in us. The commitment to the final third was highlighted by Caleb Richards’ goal.”

Harriers dictated the flow and tempo in the opening stages. Alex Penny blasted a shot wide before Jack Lambert’s deflected effort was parried away for a corner.

Dagenham slowly managed to get a foothold in the game with in-form strike Inih Effiong forcing a brilliant save from Harriers shot stopper Christian Dibble to give the home side hope.

Daggers’ Keenan Appiah-Forson stepped up in midfield and applied further pressure into the visitors box for the remainder of the first half.

Effiong, too, was a meance throughout, embarking on a sensational run past three Kidderminster defenders before his shot was deflected wide of the post.

Ben Strevens’ Daggers went close again when Tom Eastman’s header found Sam Ling at the far post but his shot was cleared off the line by the Harriers backline to keep the scores level at the break.

Dagenham again started the second half with the greater urgency with Effiong again finding himself in a dangerous area after cutting past Shiloh Remy but his curling effort flew narrowly wide.

Then, on 51 minutes, Harriers made the breakthrough. Skipper Shane Byrne played a clever pass into the path of Richards at the edge of the box and the unmarked wing back smashed a low-driving effort into the net.

Dagenham huffed and puffed in search of an equaliser and went close again when Remy and Frank Vincent combined to find Rees on the edge of the area but he failed to curl his effort on target.

But Harriers almost hit them on the counter in added time – Kai Lissimore sersiously testing keeper Elliot Justham – but they had done enough.