Midfielder Chris Hargreaves, who turned down a move to Kidderminster this week, insists he never wanted to leave Oxford United.

U's boss Jim Smith gave the in-form Harriers permission to speak to the 34-year-old midfielder.

Hargreaves had talks with boss Mark Yates, but said he wanted to stay at Oxford to try to help the U's win promotion.

League One Yeovil had also shown an interest in taking the former Grimsby, Northampton and Brentford midfielder, but that wasn't an attractive proposition geographically for the player, who lives in North- ampton.

"Kidderminster are on a hell of a run and think they can go up, but I still want to stay at Oxford and do what I can to help us go up," he said.

"I was skipper last season and that was a terrible time for me to see the team drop out of the League.

"Sometimes the way things happen are out of your hands, and I felt that was last season with the way things were behind the scenes.

"But I'd like to do what I can to get Oxford back into the League where they belong. We've still got a very good chance of promotion, I know it's not a good time and the moment, but we can turn it around, and I want to see this through.

"Of course, I don't know whether I'm going to be in the team each week, especially with Martin Foster signing - and that might be a very good signing for us - but even if I'm not playing, I'll be doing everything I can to support and encourage the lads.

"I didn't want to leave and I didn't want it to look as though I was clearing off just when things were getting difficult.

"I'm not like that - I really want to help get the team up."

It's believed though that, with a strict wage cap in the Conference, United were prepared to let Hargreaves go, indeed even wanted him to move on, to help balance the books.