MANAGER Carl Heeley admitted he “would love to be playing” in Worcester City’s first league meeting against Kidderminster Harriers in more than 30 years.

Worcester will tackle Harriers at Bromsgrove’s Victoria Ground in the hotly-anticipated Vanarama National League North clash on Boxing Day (3pm).

It will be the first time they have gone into battle since the Worcestershire FA Senior Cup final at Aggborough in April 2015 which Harriers won 2-1.

But club historians have to go back as far as April 1985 to see when the Worcestershire rivals last played each other in a league game.

John Lane scored for City but Kidderminster ran out 4-1 winners in the Alliance Premier League encounter thanks to a John Powell hat-trick.

Heeley, who has represented Worcester in more than 800 games as player and manager, said he was relishing the prospect of the derby.

“I would love to be playing in it,” said the ex-City skipper.

“I look forward to every game but there is a little bit of extra spice with local derbies and you always tend to get larger crowds over the festive period.”

Heeley’s most vivid memory of City’s battles against Harriers was from February 2010 when they met in the FA Trophy third round at their old St George’s Lane home.

The game still appears to rankle with the Blue and Whites boss as Chris McPhee struck in a 1-0 victory for the visitors.

“It was about my third or fourth game as Worcester manager,” Heeley said.

“The first one was a win against Weymouth in a league game at home and then we had a Trophy replay at Carshalton with the winners playing Kidderminster Harriers.

“After the game had been called off on a Saturday, it was rearranged as a mid-week game. I remember that well.

“We got narrowly beaten and it was frustrating because they were in the league above and we were unfortunate on the evening as we probably had the better chances.”

Heeley also “vaguely remembers” playing in a “classic” Worcestershire FA Senior Cup final against Kidderminster “It used to be a two-legged final and I remember playing in both matches,” he said.

“It was a bit of a classic from memory and a very narrow game.

“But those days are gone now. They have been consigned to the history books and it is going to have no bearing on the Boxing Day game.”