It was on a mild autumn night four years ago that Kidderminster Harriers’ Keith Lowe last came up against West Ham United and the then 33-year-old sensed an opportunity when one of the Premier League side’s midfielders pulled up injured after 10 minutes.
It didn’t work out quite as he had imagined. Colombian Carlos Sanchez was replaced by a 19-year-old Declan Rice, who ran Lowe’s Macclesfield Town ragged as West Ham won 8-0 in the League Cup.
‘It was just relentless,’ Lowe reflects. ‘I was pushed on out of defence and played holding midfielder, so I came up against Rice and he controlled everything: spreading passes, winning the ball back, speed, presence, technical ability.
Centre-back Keith Lowe, 36, is in his third spell at sixth tier outfit Kidderminster Harriers
‘And he is a huge physical presence when he’s standing right there in front of you on a pitch like that.’ Lowe’s side had shipped six goals by the hour mark.
That Lowe should be preparing for another encounter with the same Premier League opposition — Kidderminster meet West Ham in an FA Cup fourth-round tie at Kiddy’s distinctive Aggborough Stadium next Saturday lunchtime — shows his extraordinary attachment to the seventh tier club. This is his third spell with them.
They were his lifeline when a formative academy career at Wolves didn’t work out. They were virtually doomed to drop to the National League North when he left League Two York City to re-join them eight years later.
They were trying to rebuild from something close to financial ruination when he returned again last year to the distinctive sights of their little stadium — including the pub within the ground and the Severn Valley Steam Railway which runs behind one of the stands. ‘You often see the steam go up during a game,’ Lowe says.
Lowe (left) in action for Macclesfield Town against West Ham in the League Cup four years ago
The third homecoming to the former carpet manufacturing town, half-an-hour south of Lowe’s native Wolverhampton, seems to have been the most special, given the existential struggle the National League North side have had these past few years.
When current owner Richard Lane took over in 2019, he discovered debts that no one had told him about. He dispensed with the notion of a proven manager when he parted company with John Pemberton.
Club midfielder Russ Penn stepped up to do the job instead, on the basis of what Lane calls ‘a gentleman’s agreement’. For reasons that Lowe can’t entirely define, it clicked.
‘They’ve created the kind of atmosphere and spirit that I’ve not really known in the game,’ the 36-year-old says. ‘It’s about community and spirit and everyone being involved. It’s almost a desperation we now have to do well.’
Kidderminster caused an upset by knocking out Championship side Reading in the third round
The Carpetmen — the nickname recalls days when manufacturers like Brintons and Tomkinson employed hundreds here — are now in the spotlight. A clip of Penn in the dressing room after a 2-1 win over Reading in the third round went viral.
The BBC will televise Harriers, the lowest ranked side left in the tournament who are hoping to emulate their 1994 fifth-round home clash with West Ham, which the Hammers won 1-0 through a Lee Chapman goal.
On Wednesday at 9am, Lane was at the stadium to overlook what the club are calling ‘the commercials’: inventive ways of squeezing the last drops of revenue out of this opportunity.
The need is acute because, despite the allure of the tie, the costs of staging it will not leave Harriers wealthy. Much of the £110,000 in TV money will go on hiring four or five times the usual security numbers and other extra staffing.
Former Kidderminster midfielder Russ Penn was appointed manager in February 2020
They’re second-guessing the volumes of beer, crisps and soft drinks they’ll need. They ran out of beer for one of the earlier rounds.
There’s an emotional significance to next weekend for Lane. He was introduced to Harriers by his late father ‘Rocky’ — a one-time carpet company production director who became a director of the club in 1986 and took that nickname because he was known as an uncompromising figure. He always declined gloves when batting for the factory cricket team.
Father and son watched the 1994 West Ham tie together. ‘I just remember our pitch being bloody awful,’ Lane says, grinning at the memory. It had been a wet winter. We must have gone to the local beach, seeing as how much sand they used to dry it out.’
Aggborough Stadium, which holds little over 6,000, is preparing for another huge cup tie
Most people in this town prefer to talk about the 2-1 cup win at Birmingham that season. Lane and his father were right behind Jon Purdie’s sublime winner.
For manager Penn, a member of the Kidderminster side who lost 2-0 at Coventry City in the 2007 third round, Saturday is another staging post on the club’s return from relegation to the National League North four years ago.
‘We’ll try to get forward and play quick in the tie but we’ll respect the level,’ he says of next weekend’s task.
