Kidderminster started the campaign with hopes of a respectable campaign and with little expectation of a challenge for promotion. They lost some key personnel over the summer, most notably Lee Vaughan and Amari Morgan-Smith, while the additions of Jared Hodgkiss, Craig Reid and Reece Styche were the most notable ones. The squad looked a bit thin on the ground and generally at an average level for the Conference. Gary Whild’s men actually enjoyed a pretty strong start of the season and were in the play-off slots at the end of August while going unbeaten in the first seven games. But that was a rather misleading opening of the campaign and the Harriers started to fade away pretty quickly. They still secured some excellent results, like beating Woking on the road and somehow recovering from three goals down to draw Barnet on the road, but results were far too inconsistent. The real problems for the club started to emerge in November when the true impact of the financial issues hampering them became clear. The directors revealed that the club cannot sustain themselves with the current squad and there was a quick fire sale to decrease the wage bill and cash in on some prized assets. Cheyenne Dunkley and Nathan Blissett, the two standout performers in the campaign up to then, departed for pastures new and Whild was forced to bring in some unknown players from lower level to just shore up the squad. Things may have looked glum off the pitch but the team actually impressed with their spirit and quality of performances on it in the weeks after that. A surprise win at Grimsby was followed by a three-game winning run in the festive period. That kept the Harriers on the fringes of the play-off places even if they were not having lots of quality in their starting 11. But it was clear that this run was never going to last and Kidderminster endured some real struggles in the first couple of months of 2015. Even if they signed some experienced players like Lee Hughes and Danny Wright to bolster the attack, the loss of lively winger, Marvin Johnson, at the end of January proved a real blow to the squad. Kidderminster went on a run of just two wins in 14 games until late March and played some woeful and dispiriting football. There was just no effort and any sort of desire on show and Whild seemed incapable of lifting the troops, as reports emerged that the players and staff have not been paid. The morale was sombre and the season was played out on a whimper. At the end, Kidderminster did well enough to steer clear of any relegation trouble with all the trouble and instability off the pitch. But there is little to celebrate as the club faces uncertain times and look set for further struggle in the next campaign.
