CARL Heeley has demanded a response from Worcester City as they bid to channel their FA Trophy disappointment into league success.

City were sent spinning out of non-league’s main knockout competition last Saturday with a 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Blue Square Bet North rivals Altrincham.

Three goals in six first-half minutes ensured Worcester fell at the third qualifying round stage for the second season running.

However, manager Heeley is determined his players will put that defeat behind them when they return to league action against Workington at St George’s Lane this Saturday.

The City boss, whose side sit fourth in the table, won’t be afraid to ring the changes in an effort to launch a play-off quest.

He said: “There are changes there to be made and one of the things we’ve said to players is if any of them are sitting on the bench next week or in the stands, they can’t complain after that performance.

“We can swap it around a little bit and if people are not playing they can’t be too unhappy. It depends how people train in the week because I’m looking for a response.”

He continued: “I don’t think it’s going to be difficult to raise the level after last Saturday because I don’t think we could get much worse. It was poor.

“From a personal point of view, I’m disappointed for the lads because they haven’t done themselves justice. Our supporters have come out in numbers again to watch us and they’ve not had the performance the squad’s capable of.”

Heeley added: “As much as we’re disappointed, we can’t do anything about it and we believe in not dwelling on things and moving forward.

“Saturday is another game. We can have a week of training and lift each other up. We need to banish last weekend, it’s gone.

“All you can do is learn from what’s gone wrong. You are always going to get days like last Saturday.

“The best teams in the world have bad days but it’s about keeping them to a minimum, responding and learning from the things that have contributed to that bad performance.”

Left-back Ellis Deeney serves a one-match ban for the visit of Workington, while defensive colleague Shabir Khan is in Singapore on international duty with Pakistan.