A happy Mark Yates has admitted his side deserved their win over Forest Green Rovers at Aggborough and has called on his players to continue their hard work.

After battling their way through draws at Rovers and Oxford United over Christmas, Harriers saw in the New Year with a Blue Square Premier win over Jim Harvey's side.

The win extends the team's unbeaten run to six matches going into Saturday's difficult game at York.

"It was vital we took the maximum three points and I think after our performance over the Christmas period we deserved it today," Yates explained, after the 1-0 win.

"In the first half I felt both teams, but particularly us, were waiting for something to happen and at half-time I just urged the lads to make it happen.

"I thought we did that in the second half - we created a number of chances and got the goal.

"Of course, a side like Forest Green are going to come at you and throw everything at you but to be fair to the back-four and the lads in front of them, they worked extremely hard and got their just rewards."

Indeed, with the gap between Harriers and the play-off places still nine points tonight, anything other than the win would've been hazardous to the play-off ambitions that are still being harboured at Aggborough.

Assessing his team's performance over the first half of the campaign, Yates admitted he would have liked to have had a few more points on the board, but pointed out that Harriers can only keep on doing as they have been doing lately.

He added: "We've talked in the dressing room and we know we aren't out of anything yet.

"We can't say 'We're gonna' make the play-offs' - we just have to keep taking each game as it comes.

"If we work as hard as we have over the past three games and take our chances when they come along, we can beat anybody."