MANAGER Carl Heeley reckons Worcester City are better prepared to avoid a winter of discontent than in previous seasons.

In past campaigns, the Blue and Whites have faltered at the turn of the year and gone on to struggle.

This season it is the reverse, with Worcester currently enjoying their best form to date having recorded three consecutive victories in Skrill North.

While they are still in a relegation scrap, Heeley will be hoping they can continue to go from strength to strength, starting at Vauxhall Motors tomorrow (3pm).

He said: "We've had bad spells in the last couple of winters after the Christmas period. We've analysed why that is and tried tom learn from that.

"With the signings we've made, we've set ourselves up to cope with the conditions and it's working at the moment.

"It's really pleasing but there's a long way to go, they're small steps but they are positive steps. For any team that goes and wins three straight games at the bottom of the league you've got to be pleased with that."

Worcester are now just three points behind tomorrow's opponents but have played more games than those around them.

The Motormen have lost four of their last five matches, the latest being a 3-0 defeat at Rivacre Park to Brackley Town last Saturday.

Heeley added: "The league table takes care of itself. We can't worry about other teams, we have to concentrate on winning our own games and we've won three out of three.

"We're going in the right direction, we're in a better position than we were prior to the Histon game and we're pleased with that but there's a long way to go and we've got to keep working hard.

"We need to focus on ourselves, we're doing well, we're confident and it's another game that we think we can get something from."

Central defensive trio Graham Hutchison, Richard Munday and Shabir Khan are all in contention to partner Jamie Grimes.

Sam Smith, another of Worcester's centre-halves, has joined Rushall Olympic on dual registration as he continues his recovery from a knee injury.