Crawley 0
Harriers 4

HARRIERS emphatically ended their nine-game wait for an away win in the Blue Square Premier by hammering hapless Crawley Town in Sussex on Thursday night.

After a five-month wait to savour victory in the league the team did it in style with four goals in an impressive first half, putting Crawley to the sword.

Harriers' biggest problem in recent games on their travels had been hitting the back of the net, with a record of three goals in their previous six matches away from home, all of which had ended in defeat.

But drought turned into flood at the Broadhall Stadium as Harriers' ruthless finishing made Crawley pay for some poor defending.

After an early scare Harriers, unchanged from the 2-0 win over Rushden and Diamonds, filled their boots with a totally dominant display.

Harriers have also lacked a bit of good fortune on their travels in the league but they received a huge chunk of fortune in the fifth minute when a mix-up by Mark Creighton and keeper Chris MacKenzie allowed burly forward Jon-Paul Pitman the chance to fire the ball into an empty net.

Luckily for Harriers a rush of blood to the head saw him flash his effort over the bar.

Two minutes later Harriers' top-scorer Iyseden Christie punished them when he noticed keeper Ashley Bayes off his line and chipped him from 20-yards out to open the scoring.

Less than a minute later Christie fired Harriers 2-0 ahead after the visitors had punished the hosts for more defensive uncertainty.

Darryl Knights pounced on Jamie Stevens' loose pass and ran at Town's ragged defence. His slide-rule ball allowed Christie to scamper through, round Bayes and make it 2-0.

Matthew Barnes-Homer got in on the scoring act in the 20th minute after more good play by the visitors.

The striker saw a shot blocked by Town skipper Dannie Bulman but blasted the rebound past a static Bayes to have the 57 Harriers fans on their feet.

MacKenzie did well to get to Bulman's low 20-yard effort and tipped over Thomas Pinault's dipping 30-yard effort to make sure Harriers kept their three-goal lead.

The visitors continued to carve open Crawley's defence, with Barnes-Homer shooting wide in the 34th minute.

The blackmark on an almost perfect evening was when MacKenzie limped off with a thigh injury in the 38th minute and was replaced by 22-year-old understudy Dean Coleman.

The former Walsall man was solid and not troubled at all by Crawley's poor attack, which barely mustered one shot on target all night.

Barnes-Homer saw another chance go begging after the hosts failed to clear a corner in the 40th minute and Simon Russell made it 4-0 two minutes later.

The lively Knights found Barnes-Homer in the area and while Bayes was equal to his low shot, Russell swept a majestic left-foot effort into the back of the net.

With the game wrapped up by half-time and a game at Cambridge United two days later Harriers expertly kept the fitful hosts at bay.

Jamie Cook wasted the host's best chance when he shot over the bar.

At full-time Harriers applauded the small band of fans who had made the effort to come down to watch the game, after the original fixture in February had been called off at the last minute.

Listen to podcast interview with Dean Coleman and Darryl Knights.

Harriers: MacKenzie (Coleman, 39, 6); Kenna 7; Hurren 7; Creighton 8; Russell 7; Penn 7 (McGrath, 54, 6); Bennett 7; Christie 8 (Smikle 69, 6); Barnes-Homer 7; Jeannin 6; Knights 7.

Crawley: Bayes; Thomas; Stevens; Thompson; Bulman; Pitman; Wilson (Murphy, 44); Pinault; Cook (Joseph-Dubois, 79); Krause; Carayol (Blackburn, 46). Referee: Darren Sheldrake (East Molesley). Attendance: 597.