WORCESTER City’s FA Cup journey ended in a leafy Staffordshire cul-de-sac as Chasetown ran out convincing 2-0 winners in their preliminary round replay.

Having pushed the Northern Premier League side so close in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at the Victoria Ground City rarely looked like causing an upset and embarking on another glorious cup run.

Will Whielden fired the hosts into a 19th-minute lead with Muzzy Nduna making things safe for Chase midway through the second half.

“We probably had our chance on Sunday,” joint boss John Snape admitted.

“Chasetown took their goals well and could have had a couple more.

“If you look at their first goal we’ve got six players in our own box and they have two and we managed to set the guy up.

"It was a mistake but we’ve got to stop the cross coming in and then deal with it better as a team and as individuals.

“We were slightly disjointed with Renna (Dave Reynolds) not being available from the start and Lee (Hughes) but that’s not an excuse.

"We huffed and puffed but haven’t worked their goalkeeper enough during the 90 minutes. 

“In the second half the massive positive was the two young lads who came on.

"Tyreece Ruddock got in numerous times and Aaron Brett showed a few nice little touches.

"We had enough of the ball but didn’t really threaten their goal. We held on to it too long in good areas. 

“There was a lot of effort and commitment and again we’ve probably got a bit too involved in things because they were frustrated.”

Each side had a player sent off on Sunday and while no one saw red in the replay referee Richard Price booked nine players with three from City. 

Chasetown’s opener was the first real chance of the game.

Nkosi Mzungwana’s cross from the left was met by City defender Jamie Smith but he headed straight to the feet of Whielden who fired home from 12 yards.

Nduna curled another effort just the wrong side of the post and Chris Baker powered a shot straight at keeper Matt Gwynne.

City's Matt Birley had a long-range free-kick that bobbled through to keeper Darren Pond.

The visitors fared little better after the break other than a few hopeful high balls into the box which Pond gathered with ease while bandaged substitute Reynolds hit a powerful free-kick at the keeper.

By this time the hosts had added a second with Nduna drilling a shot into the roof of the net from the edge of the area 21 minutes from time.

Snape said the focus must now turn to a busy week of Midland League Premier Division action starting with the visit of Loughborough University on Saturday (3pm).

He added: “We have three games in eight days coming up.

"In our first few games of the season we really passed the ball but against higher opposition we’ve found that difficult and that’s something we’ll look at when we have two games back in the league against title contenders.”

City: Gwynne, Weir, Baldwin (Reynolds 81), Fishwick, M Smith, Hayward, Birley (Brett 63), Birch (Ruddock 77), Danks, Albert, J Smith. Subs not used: Griffiths, Devlin, Harris-James, Dayus.

Attendance: 266.

Meanwhile, Bromsgrove Sporting beat Stourport Swifts 3-1 in a Worcestershire derby in the Midland League Premier.

Aaron Lloyd pulled a goal back for Swifts with Richard Gregory (2) and Danico Johnson netting for Sporting.