City boss delighted by team’s character

7:50am Monday 11th August 2008

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MANAGER Richard Dryden has praised the character of his Worcester City side ahead of tonight’s first home match of the season against St Albans at St George’s Lane (7.45).

City got their Blue Square South campaign off to a winning start with a 2-1 success at Bognor Regis Town.

New signing Marco Adaggio struck in the 92nd minute to hand Worcester the points after Simon Jackson had equalised Ollie Barnes’ header three minutes earlier.

Dryden was pleased with the way his players refused to settle for a draw and is looking for more of the same this evening.

He said: “The character is there. You could see in the 89th minute we still wanted to win the game.

“It fills us with confidence because we haven’t played well and we’ve still won the game and that’s the trait of a side that can win more games in this league.

“I was really disappointed with the goal we conceded but the character of the lads was great. It was a fine result.”

Adaggio’s performance was one of the plus points for Dryden and the striker is expected to keep his place alongside Mark Owen tonight.

Midfielder Dave Bampton, however, is a doubt after limping out of Saturday’s game with a foot injury.

The City boss said: “Marco’s a decent player and he will score goals for us. He should have had a hat-trick.”

He added: “We probably had three or four really good chances to kill the game off in the second-half, sometimes we made the keeper work and with a bit more composure we could have had three or four.

“It was a great set-play for our goal. We could have scored one or two more.”

Dryden was pleased with his team’s defensive display but thinks Bognor deserved a share of the spoils.

He said: “Bognor play great football and they do it well, they caused us a few problems. We weren’t at the races for the first 10 or 15 minutes, no excuses for that, but we gradually got into the game.

"I thought we would have got what we deserved for the second-half performance — a draw. Bognor have got to feel hard done by for the possession they had, albeit I thought we defended pretty well.”

Goalkeeper James Lester has been registered by the club as cover for Danny McDonnell. Lester, who is based in Southampton, was drafted onto the substitute’s bench at Bognor.