Saturday, January 6, 2001

A CATASTROPHIC own goal by Mark Tucker almost certainly ended Worcester City's interest in the Dr Martens League Premier Division title race.

The central defender's third-minute aberration enabled leaders Margate to win 1-0 at St George's Lane and leave City in eighth place, now 12 points off the pace.

That's surely too much to make up now as manager John Barton again bemoaned the fact that City had failed to deliver the goods when it really mattered.

He fumed afterwards: "The goal was back to the silly days of early season. It was an absolute gift and words failed me.

"After that we are chasing the game. It knocked yards out of their game and put yards into the opposition's, and you know what they are going to do.

"In the end we have had one chance where we should have scored but against teams like Margate, those chances aren't going to come along every five minutes and you have to make the most of them.

"After the early minutes Danny McDonnell has had little more than fielding practice. We have had a go at three up front for the last 20 minutes, but apart from a Carl Tranter header we haven't really laid a glove on them. We played right into their hands."

Defender Martin Weir had some sympathy for Tucker, adding: "Along with Carl Heeley, Mark has been one of our most consistent players for the whole of the season. It was just one of those things.

"Just lately we have been struggling to break sides down, especially at home. They made it very difficult for us -- we had a few half-chances but it was a 0-0 game really."

"We are looking to improve all the time and want to be up there towards the top of the league, but we have to be winning these sort of games."

Margate came to St George's Lane with completely the opposite attitude to Newport, whose willingness to attack at every opportunity made the New Years Day game such a thriller.

Just like manager Chris Kinnear's Dover sides that dominated the league in the early 1990s, they defended in depth, were very hard to break down and tried to catch City on the break -- although personally I'd find that difficult to watch every week.

Consequently, presenting them with a goal so early on was the last thing that City needed to do.

Jay Saunders played a long punt deep into the City half and Tucker, under pressure from Margate striker Leon Braithwaite as they chased a bouncing ball, was caught in two minds.

He eventually decided to lob it back to McDonnell, who had fatally strayed off his line, and could only watch in horror as it looped into the net for the softest of own goals.

Their job done for them, Margate concentrated on repelling City's increasingly desperate attempts to hit back which they did successfully, although their time-wasting tactics -- even in the first-half -- didnt endear them to another impressive crowd, and seemed to pass Redditch referee Andrew McIlravey by.

He actually blew the half-time whistle five seconds early, and Barton made him well aware of that fact in no uncertain terms as the teams went off at the interval.

But in truth, City never showed enough guile to break them down as they failed to win for the ninth time in 12 home league games, despite the hard work of makeshift striker Mike Wyatt and midfielder Ray Woods.

Their best chance came midway through the first-half when Tucker and Mark Owen both had efforts blocked on the line in a desperate scramble.

City's defence deserves credit for denying the lea-gue's top scorer Phil Collins a single chance, and his strike partner Braithwaite had their only other chance of note early in the second-half when he beat the offside trap and rounded McDonnell, but delayed his shot and the Worcester goalkeeper was able to recover and block the striker's shot.