Dryden pleased with Worcester’s progress

5:10pm Wednesday 23rd July 2008

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RICHARD Dryden is happy with the way his Worcester City side is beginning to take shape.

City produced their best performance of the pre-season progamme to date with a 2-1 victory against Kettering Town at St George’s Lane.

Mark Owen, returning to the club after a three-year absence, and Graham Ward were on target against a near full-strength Poppies outfit gearing up for life in the Blue Square Premier.

Although it is still early days, manager Dryden thinks the signs are promising with just three warm-up games remaining.

He said: “It’s still only the fourth game of pre-season and, again, I’m not too worried about the result. Like the other three games, the pattern of play we are trying is steadily coming along and I think most things we tried against Kettering probably came off and it was quite pleasing.

“We looked solid and pretty good going forward as well. From start to finish we looked a decent outfit.

“I was disappointed with the goal we conceded, it was a little bit like the goal at their place in the league last year, a massive deflection. I think a few of the lads were distracted by the linesman flagging, which is no excuse but it was a good strike. Before then we were probably the side who were most likely to score.”

He added: “There are still people who haven’t really started a lot of games who might start against Stourport, Stoke or Rugby in our last game.

“This is near enough the squad we’ve got, it’s important when the season does start they know what’s expected of them in the positions they are going to play.”

Owen’s 27th-minute strike provided Worcester with their first goal in open play since the 1-0 first-leg victory over Redditch United in the Worcestershire Senior Cup in April.

Dryden was pleased to see his new signing make an immediate impact but is confident the 30-year-old will not be his team’s only outlet for goals.

The City boss said: “I think I have got at least three or four goalscorers on the pitch any way but obviously Mark’s renowned for his scoring pro-wess and he’s usually in the right spot at the right time.”

Danny McDonnell returned after missing the Nuneaton stalemate through injury and looks set to start the new campaign as City’s number one.

Chris Sanna is currently on trial at Chester but will return to the Lane if he is not offered a deal at the Deva Stadium. Dryden also has ‘pay-as-you-play’ options on a couple of keepers should cover be required.