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Kidderminster Harriers F.C.

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Kidderminster Harriers F.C.

Kidderminster Harriers Football Club are a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team competes in the National League North, the sixth level of the English football league system.

Formed in 1886, Harriers have spent their entire history at Aggborough Stadium. They have won the Worcestershire Senior Cup a record 27 times and are the only club from the county ever to have played in the English Football League. Founder members of the Birmingham & District League in 1889, they merged with Kidderminster Olympic the next year and entered the Midland League as Kidderminster F.C., though folded due to financial difficulties in March 1891. Kidderminster Harriers reverted to amateur status and rejoined the Birmingham & District League, though it would take until 1937–38 for them to claim their first league title, which they retained the following year. They joined the Southern League in 1948, though reverted to the Birmingham & District League in 1960. They won four further league titles: 1964–65, 1968–69, 1969–70 and 1970–71. Harriers switched to the Southern League Division One North in 1972 and were promoted to the Alliance Premier League at the end of the 1982–83 season.

Kidderminster Harriers won the FA Trophy in 1987 and were crowned Conference champions in 1993–94, though Graham Allner's team were denied a place in the Football League due to the state of Aggborough. The club improved the stadium and were admitted after winning the title again under Jan Mølby's stewardship in 1999–2000. They remained in the Football League for five seasons, finishing as high as tenth in the Third Division in 2002, before being relegated out of League Two three years later. They finished second in the Conference in 2012–13, but were beaten in the play-off semi-finals, and were relegated from the National League in 2016. They qualified for the National League North play-offs in 2017, 2018 and 2022 before winning the play-off final in 2023 to return to the National League after seven years.

Kidderminster Harriers were formed in 1886 from a highly successful athletics and rugby union club that had existed since 1877. In July 1880 the Athletics club amalgamated with the local Clarence rugby club to become 'Kidderminster Harriers and Football Club'. Matches were played at White Wickets on the Franche Road in Kidderminster. 1885-6 was the last season played as a rugby club and the Harriers switched to Association rules for the next season.

Playing games at Chester Road (the current cricket ground) Harriers' first game was 18 September 1886, away to Wilden, winning 2–1. The town saw a rival team start up as Kidderminster Olympic in 1887, rapidly becoming one of the best sides in the area. In 1887–88 the club started playing its matches at Aggborough.

Both Olympic and Harriers were founder members of the Birmingham and District League in 1889, Olympic won the league in 1890, with Harriers runners-up. Both sides regularly attracted crowds of 2–4,000, with the local derbies seeing over 7,000 attending. Owing to their success soon after both Olympic and Harriers were subject to allegations of 'professionalism' and illegal payments to players, although the League Committee let off both clubs with a warning about future conduct.

In 1890 the two clubs amalgamated as Kidderminster F.C. on a full professional basis, the new club being admitted to the Midland League which had been formed in 1889. The club became the first from the town to enter the FA Cup and after winning 4 qualifying-round games, reached the first round proper (last 32). They lost 3–1 away to Darwen but protested the result because of the poor state of the pitch. Their protest was upheld and the tie was replayed a week later, again at Darwen, where Darwen won 13–0. However the club found things difficult financially as a fully professional club, and, with debts of £369, resigned from the league and was wound up in March 1891.

The club reverted to amateur status in the Birmingham and District League the following season as Kidderminster Harriers. The club again reached the 1st Round of the FA Cup in 1906–07, losing to Oldham Athletic away 5–0. In 1910 the then current England international full-back Jesse Pennington signed for Harriers after a dispute with his then club West Bromwich Albion. He played one game before the dispute was resolved and he returned to Albion.

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