Worcester City 0 Brackley Town 3

OVER the past couple of years, the FA Cup has provided many magical moments for Worcester City’s long-suffering supporters to savour.

But what they witnessed at the Victoria Ground on Saturday was something they will wish to wipe from their memory as a lacklustre City crashed out to Brackley Town.

Goalkeeper Ryan Boot will also be keen to forget this year’s competition after pretty much gift-wrapping the Northamptonshire side a place in the fourth qualifying round.

Since arriving at the club last month, the Port Vale loanee has worked wonders for City, notably claiming three successive clean sheets.

However, in his final match of his current loan deal, the 21-year-old had one of those days all goalkeepers have nightmares about.

With 24 minutes on the clock, Boot came out to make what would usually be a routine catch following a hopeful ball forward by Brackley.

But, after colliding with team-mate Graham Hutchison, he allowed the ball to slip from his grasp and fall to the feet of Steve Diggin, who rolled it into an empty net.

Having conceded two goals from corners in last week’s 3-2 defeat to Nuneaton Town, defending set-pieces was clearly an area they would have been hoping to improve on.

However, they were exposed again six minutes after the break when Boot spilled Jimmy Armson’s delivery and David Pitt was on hand to put Brackley 2-0 in front.

Boot’s two howlers ultimately handed the visitors the win but it is fair to say he could not be solely to blame for what was a dire display from City.

In the last two seasons, Carl Heeley’s side have experienced the joys of beating Coventry City at the Ricoh Arena and tackling League One sides Scunthorpe United and Sheffield United.

But on this occasion their cup adventure ended on a damp October day in Bromsgrove as the hosts failed to produce anywhere near their best.

Their cause was not helped 12 minutes in when Cieron Keane was forced off following a nasty gash to his head.

This led to a reshuffle from Heeley with Jordan Murphy moving out to the left-hand side and Keane’s replacement Colby Bishop going up front alongside Lee Hughes.

But the trio hardly featured in the opening period as Worcester seemed content on sitting back and giving Brackley time and space to dictate proceedings.

Junior English, returning from a back injury, particularly struggled as Adam Walker, Shane Bryne and Armson bossed the midfield.

Even Chekaine Steele, who has been City’s shining light in recent games, was unable to spark his side into life, while top scorer Hughes found chances hard to come by.

After his earlier mistakes, Boot pulled off decent saves to deny Glenn Walker, Byrne and David Moyo and give City’s fans some hope.

But, to their dismay, their team failed to register a single shot on target with Hutchison’s first-half header which sailed over the crossbar the closest they came.

And, with time running out, Brackley put the final nail in City’s coffin as Ellis Myles drove into acres of space before setting up Jack Bowen for a simple finish.