WORCESTER City’s FA Cup heroes are on the march again.

Two goals from veteran Deon Burton guided the Blue and Whites into the hat for the first-round draw with supporters dreaming of another eye-catching tie akin to their memorable matches with Coventry City and Scunthorpe last season.

A handful of the players from 12 months ago were involved at Gateshead but it was new boy Burton whose goals made the difference.

He may have celebrated his 39th birthday this weekend but there were no signs of being over the hill as he gave the National League outfit a lesson in finishing.

The only disappointment for the former Derby County and Jamaican striker was that he couldn’t claim the matchball as an early birthday present, denied a hat-trick by a keeper less than half his age making his debut for the Tyneside outfit. It could only happen in the FA Cup!

Worcester dominated from the start and it wouldn’t have been an injustice if they had led by a handful at the break rather than Burton’s solitary strike on 24 minutes.

Moments earlier, he had seen his header brilliantly tipped over the bar by rookie keeper Shaun MacDonald but, from the resulting corner, the striker found enough space to hook the ball home from two yards.

City continued to press with Connor Gater being denied by the keeper, who then did well to block an Alex Gudger header with the loose ball being hoofed off the line by Heed defender Jamie Chandler.

Injury-time then saw Dan Nti pounce on a weak back header but again MacDonald was up to the task, steering the ball away for a corner.

Gateshead’s dismal first-half display was greeted with boos from the home supporters, who didn’t hold back with their criticism of manager Malcolm Crosby, who previously took Sunderland to an FA Cup final.

And some harsh words looked to have done the job when they took the game to their visitors at the start of the second half, levelling through a close-range Ryan Bowman shot on 55 minutes after keeper Nathan Vaughan could only parry Danny Johnson’s header.

But Worcester hit back and only 19-year-old MacDonald kept Gateshead in contention, diving full-length to turn aside a Sean Geddes strike.

City regained the lead on 70 minutes with a near-identical move to their opener, an Ellis Deeney corner to the near post where Burton turned the ball home.

MacDonald’s dream debut continued with an excellent triple save from Geddes and Burton (twice) before he somehow managed to keep out an acrobatic overhead kick from the striker 10 minutes from time.

Having dominated for so long, Worcester were almost undone deep in injury-time when a ball in from Jordan Cranston picked out central defender and captain Ben Clark, whose volley looked to be heading for the right-hand corner until Vaughan managed to save at the foot of his post.