Kidderminster endured a mostly disappointing campaign in which they had a very good opportunity to make the play-offs but fluffed it badly due to some poor choices at board level. The team had a very good previous season when they were the best side for long stages but just missed out in the play-offs. They certainly were starting from a good position compared to their promotion rivals, with stability both in the dugout and in the squad, that could not be said about the likes of Luton and Cambridge, who went on to dominate the league. Kidderminster made a decent start of the season and showed impressive attacking pedigree but were also quite vulnerable in defence and conceded three losses in only the first six games of the season, as many as they had done in the previous 30 in the regular season the previous year. The team was still winning most of their games and were comfortable third in the table for most of the first few months of the campaign. Lee Fowler, Joe Lolley and Amari Morgan-Smith were proving good additions to the starting 11, compared to last season, but the issues in defence remained and the team certainly was lagging in the battle for the top spot as Cambridge raced clear. Burr was expected to leave in November after being given permission to talk to Forest Green but he rejected the chance and stayed on, much to the delight of the fans. However, the longest-serving manager in the division would not remain for too long and he shocked the club by resigning in the early days of 2014. His departure was preceded by a sharp decline in results with four losses in five games in December, with the most painful being a 6:0 drubbing at the hands of Luton. That was all happening while the Harriers were in the midst of an impressive FA Cup run and they celebrated a brilliant 3:2 win in a third-round replay at Peterborough just days after Burr’s departure. Andy Thorn was the man chosen to replace Burr but he always seemed a peculiar appointment and he was not accepted at all by the fans. Meanwhile, Lolley, who emerged as a genuine hotshot over the season, was sold to Huddersfield and the team failed to replace him despite Thorn making a slew of unsuccessful signings. The team gave Sunderland a scare in the fourth round of the FA Cup and bowed out gallantly but the league form continued to be very poor. They lost three out of the next four league games before the discontent blew over and there was a genuine show of defiance against Thorn in the game against Braintree in late February. He was never going to survive that and was let go within a few days. Gary Whild, the former assistant of Burr, was given the reins for the rest of the season. He faced a major challenge in making the play-offs as there was a big gap and not a lot of time to make it up. But Kidderminster would lose just one of the 13 games played under Whild and returned somewhat to their form from previous season. They struggled to get too many wins during that run though and eventually fell short but there is optimism among the fans that the next season will be a better one.
