YORK City suffered their biggest home defeat at National League North level as unbeaten Kidderminster Harriers cruised to a 3-0 win at Bootham Crescent.

A first-half brace by Ed Williams and Joe Ironside’s effort after the interval secured the points for the visitors as temporary City chief Sam Collins suffered his first defeat during four matches at the helm.

The first chance of the afternoon had earlier seen Hamza Bencherif’s near-post header deflected over following a Josh Law corner.

Shortly afterwards, Kallum Griffiths’ edge-of-the-box shot brushed the side-netting at the end of a patient passing move.

But City failed to build on that promising start with strikers Macaulay Langstaff and Jake Wright struggling to hold the ball up as Jon Parkin sat on the bench.

Subsequently, the visitors forged ahead on 12 minutes when Williams unleashed a stunning 20-yard strike into Adam Bartlett’s top-left corner after Wright had headed out Declan Weeks’ corner from the right.

Ironside went on to see a 15-yard effort deflected well wide, before a Simon Heslop shot on goal for the hosts was turned wide by an offside Joe Tait.

At the other end, Weeks’ free kick was deflected over the City bar, while Ashley Chambers peeled off David Ferguson at the back post to meet Williams’ left-wing cross but steered his header wide.

Joel Taylor also sidefooted wide of an inviting goal after fellow wing-back Lee Vaughan had reached the right byline.

For City, Wright touched a Law header into the goal, but was offside, while Heslop volleyed a dropping ball over from 15 yards.

But the home side went on to fall further behind on 45 minutes when Kidderminster broke down the right after Heslop had won a tackle close to the halfway line.

Williams went on to run at Law before cutting inside and trying his luck with a weak shot that Bartlett would surely have gathered before Tait slid in to deflect the ball into the City keeper’s bottom-right corner.

City caretaker chief Sam Collins made a double substitution at half-time, introducing Parkin and Sean Newton with the former forcing Harriers keeper Brandon Hall into his first save of the afternoon following a powerful 30-yard strike seconds into the restart.

Following a Heslop pass, Griffiths then beat Hall with a 30-yard drive but saw his effort ping back into play off the Kidderminster keeper’s right-hand post.

But it was the visitors who scored the all-important next goal on 55 minutes when Weeks fed a charging Ironside and he sidestepped Tait’s challenge before finding Bartlett’s bottom-left corner.

Ironside might have gone on to grab a second for himself just past the hour mark, having worked his way past Tait far too easily, only for his low 12-yard shot to be pushed around his right-hand post by Bartlett.

Left-wing back Taylor went on to blast well over from distance, while City sub Wes York’s edge-of-the-box attempted lacked the conviction to extend Hall.

Kidderminster had the luxury of resting their first-choice front two with 16 minutes left on the clock and former City Wembley-winning hero Chambers received the afternoon's biggest round of applause from the home fans when he was replaced.

Sub Kane Richards immediately looked hungry to get in on the act and shot across the face of goal after cutting in from the right and he also saw a second opportunity diverted away from goal by Tait.

Fellow replacement Dan Bradley also called Bartlett into action from 35 yards, before Fraser Horsfall headed wide from a Weeks corner.

Kiddy continued to press forward and a Billy Daniels shot was sliced over his own crossbar by Tait.

The home side were denied a consolation, meanwhile, when Hall brilliantly tipped over a thumping 15-yard Heslop drive on 87 minutes.

Heslop also fired wide from just outside the box and an ambitious Parkin free kick was comfortably gathered by Hall before the final whistle was greeted by boos from a frustrated Minstermen faithful.