Kidderminster expecting backlash

Gallant losers in their FA Cup scrap with their Premiership neighbours Wolverhampton Wanderers, Kidderminster return to League business today intent on putting daylight between themselves and the bottom of the Third Division.

To an extent, however, they may feel they are intruding into private grief, even though they will be playing at home. The visitors Darlington arrive as a club torn by strife following the resignation of their chairman George Reynolds.

Reynolds, who placed the club in administration last year, decided to heed calls for his removal only five years after saving the club with a £5.2m bail-out and then helping to fund a £25m new stadium.

Supporters have chanted "Reynolds out" at recent home games and the response of the chairman was to step down, inviting others to stump up the cash to secure the club's future.

It has led to an admission of guilt on the part of David Hodgson, who took Darlington to the Third Division play-off final in his first stint as manager but has been less successful since he returned last November, winning only one match and sliding into the bottom two.

"It is no secret that we did not see eye to eye but having come back I'm disappointed I didn't win the games which potentially would have kept the chairman in the job," he said.

The reaction of the players will be key. But Kidderminster's manager, Jan Molby, expects a backlash and described the game as "the biggest of our season" with the prize of an 11-point gap between his team and the danger zone if they win.

The Second Division leaders, Plymouth Argyle, who beat Chesterfield 7-0 in their last game at Home Park, will bid to extend their unbeaten run to eight against their visitors, Rushden and Diamonds, in front of Paul Mariner and Billy Rafferty, who formed Argyle's strike partnership in the 1974-75 promotion season.