ADAM Murray says Harriers will have to get past a South Shields side who would have been worthy league winners on Saturday.
The Harriers boss takes his side to the North East for the Promotion Final on the back of a strong run of form and a dramatic play-off semi-final victory over Macclesfield FC, but he is under no illusions about the scale of the challenge awaiting at the 1st Cloud Arena.
Shields finished second to AFC Fylde in the National League North season having pushed the Coasters all the way and having topped the division for prolonged spells.
Harriers and Saturday’s hosts have shared two closely-fought meetings already this season and Murray expects similarly fine margins this weekend.
“In both games you look at, they’ve had opportunities to score as well as we’ve had opportunities to score, so I imagine it’ll be the same on Saturday,” he said.
“You’ve got two excellent teams going at it on Saturday and it will be small margins, we know that.”
Murray was also quick to praise the work done by the South Shields management team across the campaign, believing their consistency across the season made them one of the strongest sides in the division.
He added: “If I’m being honest, I know Fylde won it, but I think they probably over the course of the season were the best team in terms of what I’ve watched and seen of the league, sometimes it just works out that way.
“I think it’s a different pressure for them because I’ve been in their shoes. When we won it at Fylde we were top for a large part of the season and it went down to the last few games.
“I remember thinking 'if we don’t get this over the line as a title, it’s a real big push then for the play-offs.' I think that mentality is a tough one.
“Them guys are doing a great job there… credit to them because they’ve done amazing in terms of the season.
“But we go there with a free mindset. We go there, we know what we’re about, we know what we do.
“We know we’re up against a very, very tough opponent who have an excellent manager who plays a great style of football.”