GRAHAM Hutchison believes he is improving his football education with Worcester City.

The 20-year-old defender has been an ever-present for the Skrill North club this season, playing in all 15 league and cup games.

He has predominantly been deployed at centre-half although he also had a spell at right-back as cover when George Williams was injured.

In either role, Hutchison has been a solid performer but has looked particularly accomplished when operating in the middle, whether paired with Richard Munday, Shabir Khan or Exodus Geohaghon, before the latter was released for refusing to play in the FA Cup.

The Scot showed glimpses of his ability while on a month’s loan from Birmingham City in January and manager Carl Heeley was quick to pounce when the Blues let him go during the summer.

While Hutchison says it has taken time to adapt to the non-league game on a regular basis, he is loving his time with the Blue and Whites.

“I really enjoyed it last season and the gaffer (Carl Heeley) and Gards (Matt Gardiner) were great with me,” he said. “I had a little break over the summer and they were on the phone to me asking if I wanted to come back to play games.

“I said I really enjoyed it and I didn’t particularly want to go anywhere else. I am enjoying my football here at the minute, keeping clean sheets and I’m learning the game.

“I feel I struggled to deal with coming from full-time football to part-time with only training twice a week. I was trying to keep myself fit during the days and giving myself stuff to do but now I’ve settled in.”

In manager Heeley, who played more than 500 times at centre-half for Worcester during his playing days, Hutchison could hardly have asked for a better mentor.

His influence, and that of the coaching staff, seems to be having an impact, too, following Worcester’s six clean sheets in the last seven matches. Bizarrely, the match they failed to shut out the opposition was the 4-0 drubbing at Stockport, a performance in direct contrast to most of the campaign to date. They have also recorded four goalless draws away from home, the latest coming at Oxford City last Saturday.

“Apart from the Stockport game, which was a little bit of a blip, I don’t think we’ve conceded a goal since Gainsborough,” Hutchison said. “If you look at the results, we are not leaking goals and we look solid.

“When we had Exodus I was playing right-back but I’m happy to be at centre-back and looking to push on. As a defender, if I keep a clean sheet, I’ve done my job.”