WHEN Carl Heeley said Worcester City would serve up entertaining football at St George’s Lane, he wasn’t wrong.

City have excited already at HQ this season but Saturday’s dramatic draw will rank as one of the best games seen on home soil in many a day.

They twice hit back from behind through Matt Birley’s fine breakaway goal and a Mark Danks scorcher before playing the last 20 minutes with 10 men after captain Graham Ward was sent off for lashing out at Kyle Storer.

Both sides gave as good as they got in a compelling battle.

This was not one for the faint-hearted — manager Heeley has already suggested City’s games should come with a health warning — but the Lane’s first four-figure crowd of the season won’t be complaining.

Nobody seemed prepared to give an inch. Makeshift centre-half Marc McGregor embodied this as he soldiered on for the majority of the match with a Terry Butcher-style bandage following a fifth-minute clash of heads.

If Rob Elvins has been reinvented as a central defender, maybe the same trick should be tried with the City striker following a display of grit and determination — an attitude replicated across the park.

Even after Ward’s dismissal, City refused to lie down with sub Gary Walker literally putting his body on the line to deny Justin Marsden, while Danny Glover and Birley went agonising close to a winner.

Yet, it was Nuneaton who had edged the early exchanges with a Simon Forsdick effort deflected over by Ward.

The warning signs were there but City failed to heed them and they fell behind on 33 minutes.

Neil Cartwright, who only before kick-off had been named player-of-the-month, lost possession in his own half and the ball ran free to Lee Moore and he slotted it through the legs of Tim Sandercombe.

However, City were level within three minutes after the interval.

Glover sent a sublime ball through the middle and Birley set off in hot pursuit with a defender for company.

The pair jostled but the former Birmingham City midfielder won the race, out-muscled his marker and dispatched the ball under Danny Alcock.

That lit the blue touch paper and 10 minutes later Nuneaton were ahead again as City left a player unmarked at the back post.

This time it was Storer in acres of space and he accepted Moore’s cross before slamming the ball past Sandercombe.

Nuneaton celebrated with an elaborate copy of Jimmy Bullard’s famous finger-wagging routine for Hull against Manchester City.

But the visitors’ theatrics were premature as barely 120 seconds later a collectors’ item from Danks levelled the scores.

The striker collected the ball just inside the touchline before unleashing an exquisite right-footed curling drive that Alcock could only admire as it flew past him.

Already palpable, the atmosphere reached fever pitch 10 minutes later as Ward appeared to hit out at Storer and, following the inevitable melee, was shown a red card.

With Cartwright having been replaced, Danks was sacrificed as Walker was brought on a right-back to sure up the defence.

But City weren’t prepared to settle for a point.

Five minutes later, fine work from Glover saw him fire inches wide.

Birley did likewise soon after, while Marsden might have stolen victory for Nuneaton at the other end.

Had the referee allowed the extra minutes warranted by four substitutions and the sending off, instead of adding a mere 45 seconds, there could have been even more drama.

As it was, a point was the least City deserved for their effort on a day to remember at the Lane.