IT has been an indifferent start to the season for Worcester City.

They have played well in patches and not so well in others during their first three fixtures in Vanarama Conference North.

Carl Heeley’s side will feel they should have beaten both Stalybridge Celtic and Oxford City, given the chances they created.

Equally, they ran Guiseley, one of the promotion favourites, close on their own patch at the weekend, eventually going down 1-0.

But they have only gleaned two points from a possible nine and are one of five teams yet to win, heading into a decidedly tricky set of fixtures.

In the next fortnight, City face a team relegated from the Conference (Tamworth), another who reached the play-offs (North Ferriby) and two, in Brackley Town and Barrow, who were strong forces in 2013-14.

Coming on the back of the trip to Guiseley, who also reached the play-offs, that is a daunting prospect.

Particularly when you could argue that, on paper at least, Worcester have had what you might term the easier fixtures in their opening sequence.

This is not meant to sound negative. It merely highlights that, despite some of the promising aspects of City’s play to date, they need to start picking up points soon.

They certainly have the players to do it and, as they get increasingly used to each other, the results should follow.

It’s not as if the Blue and Whites are getting overpowered, they are being edged out by fine margins, as manager Heeley alluded to in his Guiseley post-match interview.

One mistake at the back or shot the wrong side of the post is magnified in the context of a match.

From a defensive point of view, they have put the indiscretions of the opening day behind them — when two slips allowed Stalybridge to leave with a 2-2 draw.

As ever, it is the firepower that is the concern. Following Nick Wright’s brace against Stalybridge, City failed to hit the target against Oxford and Guiseley, even if it wasn’t for the want of trying.

But this was the area that has seen the most change with Wright and Mike Symons arriving to complement Daniel Nti. Danny Jackman, Tristan Dunkley, Dan Udoh and, to a lesser extent, Connor Gater in midfield, are also still finding their feet.

Improvements were never going to happen overnight but Heeley will be hoping they come good against Tamworth at Aggborough on Saturday, followed quickly by the trip to Brackley Town on Bank Holiday Monday.