MANAGER Carl Heeley hailed 40-year-old striker Lee Hughes as football’s “Peter Pan” after inspiring 10-man Worcester City to a 2-2 draw against Gainsborough Trinity.

City were on course for a third straight defeat when forward Ashley Worsford and defender Ioan Evans put Gainsborough 2-0 up at half-time.

But Hughes came to Worcester’s rescue as he struck either side of Junior English’s red card to salvage a point at the Victoria Ground.

“Lee’s like Peter Pan as his age does not seem to be a factor for him,” said Heeley, who was delighted to welcome Hughes back after completing his three-match ban.

“When you give him a chance, he scores and the only disappointing thing for Hughesy is that when he bought himself half-a-yard late on he would have expected to put that into the top corner.

“But when you are down to 10 men and you are two goals behind you will take a point.”

Hughes leads City’s scoring charts having netted five of their seven goals but Heeley is confident other players will get on the scoresheet.

“Chekaine Steele had two unbelievably good opportunities in the first half and then he had another opportunity late on but was just a bit rash with the final decision,” Heeley continued.

“Steven Craig also had an opportunity and made the keeper pull off a good save, so goals will come.

“Yes, of course we are reliant upon Hughes at the moment but other players will start to get goals and I am confident of that.

“We are creating opportunities as we had six or seven great chances but I just wish they could all fall to Hughesy sometimes.”

Worcester suffered their fourth sending off of the campaign when English was given his marching orders after tackling Gainsborough striker Jacob Hazel from behind.

Heeley criticised the decision, saying, “It should never have been a red card,” but he praised the way his players responded.

Striker Craig and midfielder Ebby Nelson-Addy replaced Colby Bishop and Richard Batchelor respectively at half-time and City’s boss believes the duo made the difference in the second half.

“For me the game should have been over after 20 minutes as we had three great chances which we have got to score,” Heeley added.

“The first goal (we conceded) was terrible and the second one we got undone with a ball into the box, which is always disappointing.

“So we made a couple of changes at half-time as we needed a response and somebody to try to kick us into life because it is easy to feel sorry for yourselves when results aren’t going your way.

“And I thought Ebby and Steven definitely did that for us.

“They gave us a boost and, once we got the first goal, all the belief came back and I am slightly disappointed we have not won it because I thought we were the better side.”