Kidderminster Harriers v Halifax Town, 26 August 2000

A scene of triumph for Halifax in the spring of 1998 turned into one of sheer frustration as Halifax made their first league visit to Kidderminster. The Harriers extended their unbeaten home run to 19 games, but Town had reason to feel that could have added to the two draws from the opening two 2000/01 League games. The Yorkshireman drew first blood when Steve Gaughan collected Steve Thompson's pass and shrugged off two defenders - his shot was deflected into the net by defender Craig Hinton. Stewart Hadley then turned a closely fought affair on its head as half time approached. The former Mansfield striker netted a loose ball after Dean Bennett was denied by Tony Parks. The 37 year-old goalie was also picking the ball out of the net two minutes later. Hadley was first to react again after Parks had pulled off a fine save when the Harriers top scorer got on to the end of a Andy Ducros cross. Effectively, the game hinged on the 47th minute incident when Adie Smith handled only for Steve Thompson - who hadn't missed during his time at Rotherham - to have his penalty saved by Tim Clarke. To make matters worse, Smith was only booked rather than the seemingly obvious dismissal. That said, when Tony Bird was subsequently sent-off for a second bookable offence, Jan Molby's team got men behind the ball while Halifax appeared to run out of ideas.