Rampant Tigers batter lowly Kidderminster into submission with a second half goal feast, high on quality as well as numbers.  Mark Gretton reports on an embarrassment of riches, and a debut goal for Ryan France.

And so suddenly we are the swaggering bullies of this division. Having brushed aside a goodish Rochdale side we jumped all over a competent but struggling Kidderminster to produce a result and a set of goals that will have eyebrows moving northerly all over our division. Of course, it wasn't as simple as it now looks, with City it never is, as I tell you who didn't witness it that though we scored 6 we actually played well for only half the game, but that is the nature of us, team and fans. One day we may put it together for ninety minutes and someone is going to be on the receiving end of one of those times when the Harlem Globetrotters set up such a scoring rhythm that the scoreboard eventually broke under the strain of keeping up, with much smoke and ruptured springs in evidence. But this will more than do for now. Giving a more than passable imitation of Meadowlark, Angelface and the rest were:

Musselwhite
Hinds Whittle Delaney Dawson
Price Green Keates Elliott
Alsopp Burgess

And we could hardly have started better, as we once again squinted into the autumnal sun as we attacked the North stand end. Price swung over a long cross, picked out Whittle who turned the ball back for Burgess to, well, pretty much cock it up, stumbling as he partially wrapped his left foot round it. This seemed to bamboozle Brock in the Kiddy goal and he was late on to the ball, so late that he didn't grasp it until it was past him and, according to the officials over the line. You get these at home. 1-0, another goal for Burgess and three assists in as many games for Justin who, realising he has to do more to get a regular place in a Taylor side than merely be the best defender in the division, has started to turn up in dangerous attacking positions, something that had previously seemed as likely as a debate on the Iraq war at a Labour Party conference.

And in typical style, we were then in no way able to get our foot on the visitor's neck. We surrendered the ball. We were late to the second ball. We sat back. We defended too deep. All the things we do when we're not putting sides to the sword. It became, sad to relate, largely formless. The crowd quieted too, although there were repeated and bellowed shouts of encouragement to Richard Hinds, a player who has not previously garnered completely uncritical support from the faithful. It must have done him a power of good and clearly lifted the spirits of the fans, too. Good to hear. Of the Kiddy fans we heard nothing. They sat huddled high in the North stand as though fearing contamination if they got too close to the action on the pitch, exuding west-midlands small-town disapproval at the finery of our stadium and the grandeur of our situation and maintaining a resolute silence throughout.

But after half an hour they leveled it. Allsop, perhaps smarting over Justin demonstrating how easy it is to link up front, came back to show that this central defensive business was nothing too taxing and got into a right tizzy with Delaney in a 'yours, mine, leave it' sort of way before between them they bounced the ball into the path of John Williams who scored without difficulty and more surprisingly, without any evidence of classical guitar music, a blessing indeed. But from film score to goal scorer it was 1-1 and we had lost our way.

That the players went off to a decent reception quarter of an hour later was due to Danny Allsopp demonstrating that he is much better employed at the business end of the game. The goal had not exactly galvanised us, the Kids had gone close again with a free header wide after a cross from outwide on their left before we roused ourselves with a corner and a Price header that was saved. But virtually on half time we got the ball in from the left where Burgess made a nuisance of himself before the ball broke loose to Allsopp who finished excellently on the half-volley. 2-1, half time and we barely deserved it.

Yet that was effectively game over. As against Rochdale we came out energised, Price surged down the right, Dawson supported intelligently on the left. And then Dawson did something more, much more, as one of our attacks was partly cleared and the ball drifted out to him, well outside the area and to the left. As the ball fell Dawson lashed the volley with the outside of his boot and we in the East had the privilege of being directly behind the flight path as it curved outwards and whipped inwards before entering the net which thrashed and billowed like a spinnaker in a force nine. Brilliantly conceived and executed, keeper Brock stood and watched as Jacque Rudolph had watched mesmerised at the Oval as Martin Bicknell brought one back into him after giving him two that left him, but this was done at the speed of Curtley Ambrose in his prime. Wonderful, wonderful goal, the sort of moment that rewards you for turning up and watching so much dross over so many years. 3-1

And now it was party time. Burgess was a magnet for everything up front, Delaney was rock like at the back and we took control. Green broke well but finished tamely, Holt on for Elliott was quickly into his work, shooting just past the upright. Burgess dispossessed their defence but he too could not get the shot on target. 2 minutes later he received from Green and fed Allsop and again the radar was ever so slightly off. We did get the ball in the net, perhaps from Allsopp, but we had infringed earlier. But we were shredding them now and it was going to tell. From a corner Burgess received the ball with his back to goal, flicked it up twice to control it and, realising that today anything was possible, dropped his right shoulder and hooked it over his head and into the net. If I told you that Frank Worthington could not have done it better you'd know that I was lying, but when I tell you that the Great Man would have been more than happy to have done it, you know how good it was. 4-1.

Ryan France was now on to replace Price and on his debut he could do no more than keep the fairytale going, sliding in the fifth after more excellent work by Dawson. 5-1, and we were eviscerating them at the back. To their immense credit they never completely lost their focus up front, John Williams working hard and prompting cleverly whilst thankfully eschewing nostalgic plunk plunk melodies for a time in the Americas which never existed outside Hollywood. But at the back they were more harassed than Harriers and, unlike some, were no longer at the races. They gave away a free kick right when they must have thought the referee was about to blow for time and, so drunk were we on fantasy, it seemed the most natural thing in the world as Green curved it over and round the wall and past Brock, whose custody of the leather had become liberal in the extreme. 6-1, game really over and, as he took the salute of nearly 14000 fans, I would venture to suggest that Greeny wasn't thinking 'I wish I was doing this in front of 3 sheep and an unfeasibly fat keeper in West Cumbria.'

We've been here before. 2 years ago we put five past fancied Cheltenham, went up to Hartlepool on the Tuesday night wondering how many we would score against a team that had not yet managed a win only to crash and burn spectacularly in front of Gordon Watson as we shipped 4. It was never quite such a glad confident morning again for the Little regime and we all remember that Cheltenham went up and Hartlepool finished ahead of us. A Swansea side who are full of goals and seemingly fully recovered from being the only team to have under achieved more desperately than we did last season will be our first meaningful test since we failed our Oxford examination. Perspective is all.

Sod perspective. Saturday was superb, a great day to be alive and be a Tigerfan, when our players combined to do some special things. We'll be talking about it for a long, long time.

HULL CITY (4-4-2): Musselwhite; Hinds, Whittle, Delaney, Dawson; Price, Green, Keates, Elliott; Burgess, Allsopp.  Subs: Holt (for Elliott, 72), France (for Price, 76), Forrester (for Allsopp, 83), Fry, Fettis.

Goals: Burgess 5, 81; Allsopp 44; Dawson 57; France 84; Green 90

Booked: None

Sent Off: None

KIDDERMINSTER HARRIERS: Brock, Smith, Hinton, Willis, Stamps, Bennett, D Williams, Ward, Betts, Dyer, J Williams. Subs: Henriksen (for Betts, 69), Gadsby, Shilton, Parrish, Bishop.

Goals: J Williams 21

Booked: Hinton, Stamps

Sent Off: None

ATTENDANCE: 13, 683