Players stick by City survival bid (From Worcester News)

Players stick by City survival bid

9:00am Tuesday 2nd March 2010

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IT has been six weeks since Richard Dryden was sacked as manager of Worcester City and there’s still no sign of a mass player exodus.

Many people, myself included, expected sections of the squad to follow Dryden from St George’s Lane out of loyalty to the former Southampton defender, but it hasn’t materialised.

At the time, chairman Anthony Hampson backed them to stay and claimed they had become disillusioned under Dryden.

He has been proved right. Caretaker manager Carl Heeley has galvanised the players and not one of them has left by their own volition.

This could be because they are sitting tight on their contracts, their loyalty to Dryden was unfounded or no-body would take them. Perhaps it’s a mixture.

Heeley, though, clearly felt some were not good enough for City and had taken an axe to the squad before the ink on his predecessor’s pay-off was dry.

But it is difficult to argue as defender Kevin Spencer went to Lane tenants Evesham United, a league below Wor-cester, while clubs have not exactly been breaking the door down to sign transfer-listed striker Marco Adaggio.

It was a similar story last season as those previously deemed good enough for the Blue Square South have dropped down the leagues.

Of the players who were released last summer, it is fair to say they haven’t exactly been setting the world alight.

Dave Bampton, brought in as a midfield general but seldom available due to injury and suspension, has just signed for Zamaretto League Premier Division strugglers Swindon Supermarine, one level below City.

Ollie Barnes, who started 41 games for City, showed up at Blue Square South rivals Weymouth and then moved to Dorchester but has since been loaned to Clevedon Town.

Matt Dodd, hailed as a wing wonder on his arrival at the Lane, went to Halesowen Town but has since returned to Sutton Coldfield Town in the Zamaretto Division One Midlands, where City signed him from.

Take a look at the Stourport Swifts team and you’ll find left winger Jamie Price and midfielder Chris Cornes.

Centre-half Jon Richard-son, arguably the best player released, chiefly to continue with his physiotheraphy degree, played a handful of games for Solihull Moors in Blue Square North.

Fellow defender Craig Brown, a product of City’s academy system, is now with Malvern Town in the Midland Alliance.

Contrast that with the season before when Chris Smith and Mark Danks both left, albeit for a combination of finance and geography.

Smith is now plying his trade in the Blue Square Premier with Tamworth, while Danks is leading scorer at Northwich Victoria in Blue Square North.

But that won’t bother anyone at City as long as the current crop prove themselves good enough to save them from relegation.