PHIL Brown stressed the need for his Kidderminster Harriers side to ‘keep believing’ following a frustrating 1-0 home defeat against Alfreton Town.
A late own goal from Alex Penny settled the game at Aggborough as Harriers saw their winless run in the league stretch to four matches.
And Brown insists his side must keep believing in their style of play after missing a number of chances to win the game against Alfreton.
Brown said: “I’m allowed to get frustrated on the touchline because I don’t play anymore, the players are not allowed to get frustrated, they’ve just got to keep on doing what they’re doing and it’ll eventually turn into a win.
“The team that lost has a certain style of football that will win plenty of games playing that way. I went to India and I had the word belief in Hindi tattooed on my brain along with honesty and trust.
“Belief is one of the biggest words in football, we can’t lose our belief just because we’ve lost a game one-nil, we have to keep believing that we’re going to win more games than we lose.
“The style of football might not be everybody’s cup of tea in the National League North but we have to find a way to win games like this instead of losing them.
“We’ve got to be more clinical in the final third but also in the penalty box and the six-yard box, we have to be more streetwise and calculated in the final pieces of the jigsaw.
“It’s all about winning, we’ve grabbed the start [of the season] well and we haven’t moved on, I think one or two players have the lost the belief in the way we’re playing.
“But if we lose our belief we might as well all go home and not come back. I want everybody back on the training ground with the belief we can win the next match.
“It’s admirable the way we’re playing but the only way to admire it is to win games of football.”
The home side created the game’s first chance when Ashley Hemmings headed a cross from the right towards goal only for an Alfreton defender to turn the ball over his own crossbar.
Harriers went close again on the half-hour mark as George Willis somehow kept out Caleb Richards’ shot from close range with the hosts unable to scramble loose ball home.
Hemmings spurned a golden chance to break the deadlock in first-half injury time as Willis denied the striker when one-on-one following a quick counter attack after good work from Maz Kouhyar.
The visitors missed a glorious chance of their own on 66 minutes as Billy Fewster just failed to connect with a ball in from the right from six-yards out with an empty net in front of him.
Brown’s men responded with a chance of their own as Kouhyar played in Hemmings who took the ball around Willis only to shoot wide from a tight angle.
However, the game’s decisive moment came on 79 minutes when Penny inadvertently turned substitute Lewis Salmon’s cross from the left into his own net.
Kidderminster are next in action away at Buxton in FA Cup Third Round Qualifying on Saturday, September 28 with kick-off at 3pm at Silverlands Stadium.
