So on a blustery afternoon at the Park in front of a respectable 2418 fans, City are sent crashing out of this year's FA Trophy 1-0 by a very strong and well organised Kidderminster Harriers side. City lined up: Paul Jones; Billy Jones, Todd, Edwards, Woodards; Moxey, Challinor, Buckle, Cozic, Carlisle; Mackie.

Encouraged by the success over Oxford a fortnight ago, manager Tisdale persevered with a 4-5-1 formation for the visit of Kidderminster. It looked as though this would pay off as early as the first minute when a defender dallied over a woefully underhit back pass to allow Mackie to nip in and run on goal. His efforts came to nothing though as the keeper was quick to spot the danger and rushed out to smother the chance on the edge of the box. The Kidderminster response was immediate as the ball was soon up the other end and saw Jones tip a ferocious 25 yard drive onto his crossbar and away to safety.

It was somewhat against the run of play that City had a chance to take the lead in the fifteenth minute. Challinor sent Cozic on his way through the middle and after losing the ball in a tackle, Mackie picked it up and fed Moxey on the left just inside the box. A crude swipe by a defender saw his legs whipped away from under him to give the referee little option to point to the spot. Unfortunately the result was the same as a couple of weeks ago when we last played Kidderminster with Billy Jones firing the penalty horribly wide when normally he's so clinical.

It took another fifteen minutes before another City move of note, this time Woodards out wide chipped the ball in to Challinor who nodded down for Mackie to fizz a first time drive wastefully over. Again the Kidderminster response was instant, this time the resulting goal kick was played down the pitch and into the box where Paul Jones was left hopelessly exposed by a poorly attempted offside trap and beaten to the ball by the bustling Christie who dinked the ball past Jones into the net for a deserved 1-0 lead.

It wasn't a one sided game despite Kidderminster enjoying huge dollops of possession - mainly due to Mackie's insistence on being offside at every opportunity and handing the impetus straight back - and in the 35th minute City enjoyed a rare and for once legal break into the Kidderminster box when Carlisle poked the ball forward for Moxey to blaze across the area to collect before smashing low into the side netting from a difficult angle. Once again Kidderminster hit back though, and Jones had to be alert to parry a ferocious drive through a crowd of players from the edge of the box that he only saw at the last minute..

With five minutes of the half remaining, Kidderminster had a glorious chance to double their lead when an attacker beat Jones to a cross to leave his strike partner the simplest task of nodding in from six yards out, but Woodards had other ideas and leapt like a scalded cat to head off the line just under his own crossbar.

Soon half time was upon us, and a wonderful and moving tribute was paid to popular City fan Paul Palmer who was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident earlier in the week, after which the crowd responded warmly to the invitation to join in a long round of applause to celebrate Paul's life. Warm applause was also afforded to City's two new signings - Steve Tully and Lee Elam, both from Weymouth - who were paraded on the pitch during the interval too.

But then it was time to get back to the action and after five minutes it was almost a carbon copy of City's first attack of the game with a defender misjudging a ball played back allowing Mackie in on goal. Unfortunately his first touch was too heavy giving the keeper an easy collect on the edge of his box.

With ten minutes gone Kidderminster had an even better opportunity than the one at the end of the first half when Jones and a Kidderminster forward got themselves in a tangle with the ball falling at the feet of another Kidderminster player. Faced with an open goal five yards out, inexplicably - and rather comically - he crashed his drive against a post and away.

Tisdale sensed the game slipping away, and so with half an hour remaining called on his big guns to try and rescue an unlikely result with the double substitutions of Stansfield and Phillips for Mackie and Buckle. It almost paid dividends midway through the half when Moxey hoisted a speculative punt into the box where it was hooked over by Stansfield from ten yards.

Ten minutes later a deep raking ball found Carlisle scampering down the right but with little on he chose to cut inside and flashed over from the edge of the box. City's final chance to force a replay came in the final minute when Cozic laid the ball into Stansfield's path with a peach of a defence splitter, but in keeping with the rest of the performance today, Stansfield's one on one with the keeper ended with a shanked smash high into the Bastin Stand from fifteen yards out.

But in the end it was no more than City deserved. Kidderminster dominated possession in the middle despite being outmanned, and their two forwards were a real handful for Edwards and Todd, which is in sharp contrast to Mackie's constant offside runs. As to the rest of the players, despite not having much chance with the goal, Paul Jones didn't exactly cover himself in glory today and had one of those games I'm sure he's keen to forget. The full backs didn't fare much better either, although Todd and Edwards worked hard to just about contain Kidderminster's two lively forwards.

In midfield Cozic seemed to get stronger as the game went on, but that was of no consolation to overworked team mates early on, especially Buckle who did more than his fair share of getting stuck in in the first half. Challinor appeared to appreciate the change to a 4-4-2 formation after the substitutions, but for me the midfield plaudits should go to Dean Moxey who worked incredibly hard down the left flank to not only try and create going forward but also dropping back to help out when Kidderminster tried to attack down their right.

Up front it didn't really happen with all the strikers guilty of missing one on one chances when at times it appeared easier to score, but that's not to say the game was lost simply because we had an off day. Kidderminster were well worth their win, and considering how much importance the City management have placed on Trophy success, bizarrely they seemed more up for the game too.

Hopefully this is just a blip in what has been an encouraging set of results recently, and against quality opposition too. However, much as we'd all enjoy another Trophy run like last year's, it's the league that matters above all else, so if we're going to have a bad day at the office then much better that it was today and not next week when Gravesend are the visitors to the Park.

So let's just file this one away under 'could have done better' and realise that success isn't guaranteed nor is it handed out on a plate. It has to be earned and it has to be worked for, and our final chance for success this season lies with the league, and it all starts again next weekend. Make sure you're there, and there in numbers as we hopefully put today behind us and return to the thrilling performances of recent weeks. Do you really want to take the chance on missing a cracker, then? Didn't think so.