MANAGER Carl Heeley reckoned some of his Worcester City players were lucky to escape serious injury in the 1-1 FA Cup draw at Leamington.

The Blue and Whites boss felt referee John Busby did not take a tough enough stance following a number of what he described as “horrific challenges” at the New Windmill Ground.

Although Dan Newton and Matt Dodd were both cautioned for fouls on Danny Jackman and Jacob Rowe in the second half, Heeley thought the Oxfordshire official should have acted sooner.

“There were three or four horrific challenges that went unpunished,” he said. “I’m fortunate I haven’t got one or two players with broken legs.

“He needed to be stronger. You can’t be warning players in the 75th minute and saying I’ll give you another chance when they’ve committed seven or eight fouls. He needed to stamp his authority and he struggled.”

Newton brought Leamington level seven minutes into the second period after City had got off to fine start with Nick Wright’s deflected 18th-minute strike.

Although City had opportunities to win the game, Heeley was happy to get another chance at Aggborough tomorrow night.

He said: “Before the game we spoke about the minimum being to come away still in the hat. I think we did enough to win it, I thought we were the better side and created more than enough chances but their keeper’s pulled of some great saves.

“Credit to Leamington, we knew they were going to have a spell in the game and they had that in the first 20 minutes of the second-half.

“They got themselves level but I thought we finished strongly. They had a header, which was a good chance, but we had a few good chances in the second half as well.

“We’re still in it and we would have taken that before the game had started.”

He added: “We’re a footballing side and the only thing we’re a little bit disappointed with is the first 20 minutes of the second half when we stopped moving the ball.

“We surrendered the initiative a little bit because when we were passing the ball and moving it they were really struggling to cope with us.

“We know a bit more now so we’ll take that into tomorrow night and we’ll try to play for longer periods because if we do then we’re going to be a tough nut to crack, certainly at home.”

Nick Wright replaced the injured Mike Symons and the former Kidderminster Harriers striker earned praise for his performance.

Heeley said: “I thought Nick worked so hard and it epitomised the first half performance when he ran 40 yards to get a block on the right-back knocking a ball down the line.

“Hold-up play is a side of his game Nick needs to work on play but he looked a major threat and the footwork before his goal was superb.”