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, Chris brings us his latest taste of nostalgia on the Harriers in our monthly feature ‘Harriers Heritage’.
A MERRY band of Kidderminster Harriers’ supporters are getting in the mood for Christmas by inviting me to take part in one of their wacky party games.
The madcap idea is to come up with as many world famous footballing surnames that can be loosely linked with Harriers over the past few decades.
So I have joined them in the spirit of Christmas and together we’ve ended up with five legendary names – Hitchens, Molby, Shilton, Francis and Matthews.
Gerry Hitchens’ goal-den career began taking off when he signed for Harriers in September 1953.
He went on to make World Cup appearances for England in the tournament in Chile in 1962, scoring in a quarter-final defeat against eventual champions Brazil.
After leaving Aggborough for Cardiff City in a £1,500 deal in January 1955, he then joined Aston Villa for £22,500 in 1957 before going on to play for Inter Milan as well as a number of other clubs in Italy.
Harriers first became interested in the talented teenager when he played at Aggborough for Highley Miners Welfare in the 1952/3 Harriers Junior Cup final.
Former Aggborough boss Jan Molby, who guided the club into the Football League in 2000, graced the world stage by making 33 appearances for Denmark.
The Liverpool midfield legend’s first managerial job was at Swansea City before having two spells in the Aggborough ‘hot-seat’ (1999 to 2002 and 2003 to 2004) which sandwiched a brief spell in charge of Hull City.
And it is here where the Christmas party famous names-game starts to get a little more offbeat and trickier.
Shilton springs to mind, but not iconic England goalkeeper Peter who played around the world during his 125 international appearances.
Instead, our group of oddball old stagers are thinking of his son Sam, a forward who played for Harriers on 92 occasions and netted eight goals between 2001 and 2004.
Francis also stretches the ‘rules’ of the bonkers names-game which was ‘invented’ during a chinwag about the world of football – and Harriers in particular – at a pre-festive gathering in a local pub.
Teenage defender Louis Francis joined Harriers on the eve of the current season – and he is the grandson of the late great Trevor Francis.
Trevor became Britain’s first £1million footballer when Brian Clough snapped him up for Nottingham Forest in 1979 from Birmingham City.
He made more than half-a-century of appearances for England during his illustrious career.
Our last crazy contribution is the name of Matthews – and he did not even perform for Harriers.
Instead, he played against them – and we are thinking of the legendary Sir Stanley Matthews.
England international winger Sir Stan, known as ‘The Wizard of Dribble’, graced the Aggborough turf in February 1967 when he lined up for Port Vale in a testimonial match for Stewart Logan, a full-back who played for Harriers between 1954 and 1970.
With our crackpot contribution to the names-game at an end I was joined in the spirit of goodwill by a colleague on the Aggborough press bench when I mentioned the theme of this quirky column.
He came up with Moore. No, not Bobby, England’s World Cup winning captain, but former Aston Villa and QPR forward Stefan Moore who played for Harriers between October 2008 and May 2009.
And that’s where we have blown the final whistle on our nostalgic pre-Christmas trivia trail after covering around 70 years of Harriers’ heritage.
24th Jun, 2026
