WORCESTER City boss John Barton today defended star striker Mark Owen after his glaring miss cost City a place in the semi-finals of the Dr Martens Cup.

The 23-goal forward hit the bar when faced with an open goal, and Burton capitalised to win 1-0 with a late goal.

But Barton said: "He has had the chance and missed it, and it is dead and buried as far as I am concerned.

"At least he was there to miss it, but you still wouldn't have believed it."

Barton said of the game: "I was disappointed with the result but I am not complaining about the performance.

"It was a keenly contested and competitive game on our part and we defended very well.

"We have been taking chances recently which have changed the course of games, but we didn't do that last night and got punished on a set-piece."

But Barton says their performances against high-flyers Burton and Bath will stand them in good stead as they battle to beat the drop.

"It just shows how close it is, not just at our end of the table but at the top end as well. On another day we could have got two draws out of two of the top three, and just fell the other side of it."