Following today's goalless draw against Northwich Victoria at Aggborough, boss Mark Yates has praised the impact of his new recruits.

Yates brought in Matthew Bailey, Darryl Knights, Chris MacKenzie and Luke Jones ahead of the clash against Dino Maamria's Vics, and all four made their debuts this afternoon.

And all have come in for positive assessments from the gaffer, with centre-half Jones particularly catching the eye with a solid performance at the back.

Speaking after the game, Yates commented: "We took the decision to bring in some fresh, young legs and there was a lot of promise today.

"The one for me in particular was Luke Jones, I thought he was outstanding.

"MacKenzie was solid and the two young boys looked lively and they're going to give us something between now and the end of the season."

Reflecting on the game he was left to admit that visiting goalkeeper Lewis Edge, playing in just his second game of a loan spell from Blackpool, had an inspired afternoon:

"We haven't won the game as we would have liked," he went on.

"But their goalkeeper has made two or three excellent saves; we would have liked to have put him under more pressure.

"We've had four new players come in today and they've all played; and all done reasonably well."

Harriers go ahead to face Rushden & Diamonds in a Setanta Shield Fifth Round tie at Aggborough - Yates revealed how he expects his newly-assembled line-up to progress between now and kick-off on Tuesday night.

"We'll get better from today's performance; the new players will bed in and will get better.

"We'll work hard again on Monday towards playing even better on Tuesday.

"I thought today's was a decent enough performance and we did well."

Harriers v Rushden is at 7:45pm at Aggborough on Tuesday, admission is just £10 for adults, £5 for concessions and £2 for U16s.