PHIL Brown praised the ‘mentality’ of his Kidderminster Harriers side following a hard-fought win at Scarborough Athletic.
Harriers took the lead on three separate occasions at the Flamingo Land Stadium as Maz Kouhyar, Amari Morgan-Smith and Ashley Hemmings all found the net to send Harriers top of the National League North table.
And Brown felt his side passed a test of character in securing all three points at Scarborough.
Brown said: “I was delighted with the attitude and the mentality of the players, it was a real test of character.
“Many a time I would have lost that game as a manager and as a player because of the emotional control side of things.
“I asked the players for control at half time and my word they didn’t half provide it, it was a tough old game but we’ve come out of it with a lot of plaudits from the character side of the game.
“It doesn’t make too much of a difference in my opinion [being top of the league].
“The target was already on our back, people say the target gets bigger when you’re top of the league, we’ve got to be able to handle that and we showed that we could.”
Kidderminster broke the deadlock on 15 minutes as Kouhyar drilled a low shot through the glove of Scarborough goalkeeper Ryan Whitley on the half-volley from 15-yards out.
However, the home side equalised just a minute later when Luca Colville headed in a cross from the left from six-yards out.
The visitors reclaimed the lead on 27 minutes as Morgan-Smith forced the ball home at the back post following a scramble in the box.
Scarborough drew level for a second time on 39 minutes when Harry Green’s venomous free-kick from just outside the penalty area deceived Harriers goalkeeper Christian Dibble.
However, Brown’s men took the lead for the third time on 68 minutes as Kouhyar released Morgan-Smith who squared the ball to Hemmings who finished into an empty net.
Kidderminster are next in action against Warrington Town on Saturday, January 18 with kick-off at 3pm at Aggborough.
