Chris Oldnall has been following his home-town football club Kidderminster Harriers since the early 1960s and he has also been chronicling their fluctuating fortunes for around 60 years.
Here, in our monthly feature ‘Harriers Heritage’, Chris says one particular ‘turnaround’ season gave a life lesson in making rash predictions.
KIDDERMINSTER Harriers’ topsy-turvy 2012/13 campaign went under the microscope recently when I chatted to a couple of fans about how successful they think their newly promoted club will be in non-league’s top flight next season.
And it soon became clear from what they told me that they have learned from the past about making rash predictions.
But that is not particularly surprising when you look back over the years.
After all, who could have predicted what would happen in the months that followed Harriers’ first Blue Square Bet Premier League match of the season in August 2012 when they lost 1-0 at Lincoln.
And after they failed to win any of their opening ten games I can recall regular Aggborough followers fearing the worst about how the season was going to unfold under manager Steve Burr.
But they needn’t have worried – a remarkable upturn in fortunes was on the horizon.
So remarkable, in fact, that I’ve stepped back in time to jog memories with a month-by-month breakdown of how Burr’s boys turned the league table upside down.
After losing at Lincoln, Harriers were also defeated in their other four outings in August.
That left them bottom of the table and desperately needing a big improvement in September.
And after five consecutive draws, Burr’s side finally secured their first victory of the season with a 3-1 triumph at Cambridge United before ending the month with a 3-0 win at home to Macclesfield.
That left them 20th in the table as they headed into October which yielded a mixed bag of league results – draws with Ebbsfleet and Gateshead, a win over Hyde and a defeat against Stockport.
November started with a draw against Woking and victories over Nuneaton and Telford which lifted Harriers into 16th place.
By the end of December they were fifth after defeating Wrexham, Tamworth, Newport, Dartford and Hereford.
They were still fifth at the end of January despite a home New Year’s Day defeat against old rivals Hereford – a setback which was followed by wins over Barrow, Mansfield, Macclesfield and Telford.
By the end of February Burr’s ever-improving troops were second after beating Cambridge, Hyde, Forest Green, Alfreton and Nuneaton.
During March, high-flying Harriers hit top spot after a month in which they won seven of their eight matches, the other ending in a draw.
Then, on April 1, they clinched a vital 2-1 win at Luton to guarantee a play-off place.
Further crucial victories over Lincoln and Wrexham finally set the scene for a thrilling climax to a memorable campaign.
Indeed, Harriers went into their last league fixture of the season against Stockport in second place, two points adrift of title favourites Mansfield who faced a last-day home clash against Wrexham.
And I can still remember the excitement of a 6,000-plus crowd squeezing into Aggborough to see if Harriers could beat the odds and gain automatic promotion back to the Football League by being crowned champions.
Although they duly relegated Stockport with a 4-0 win, Mansfield kept their nerve to beat Wrexham 1-0 and hold on to top spot.
That left second-placed Harriers facing a two-leg play-off semi-final against Wrexham – and they lost both of them.
For the Aggborough faithful it was a deflating end to a roller-coaster league season which proved one thing – and that’s to be wary of making predictions.
