TEENAGERS Jamie Smith and Andre Brown bagged the goals that gave Worcester City the points at home to Boston United last night.

Veterans Lee Hughes and Deon Burton had been hogging the headlines for the last few weeks but this time it was City’s ‘youth policy’ that came up trumps in the 2-1 Vanarama National League North win at Aggborough.

Now the trick is to find the perfect mix, according to joint manager Matt Gardiner.

“Everyone was saying at the start of the season that we didn’t have the experience on the field,” the joint boss explained.

“We’ve got that now together with the youth and what we need to do is get everyone on the pitch at the same time.

“We were down to the bare bones but we’ve put in a shift and a performance, which we have to do for every game.

“We showed great determination out there. We were pretty disappointed with the performances, both individually and collectively, against Sheffield United and following that at Stalybridge Celtic.

"We played some good football at Stalybridge but gave away some sloppy goals and we wanted to make sure we didn’t do that last night.”

City were able to name just four substitutes such was the list of players unavailable through injury, work or suspension.

And the injury list worsened when Smith was carried off midway through the second half.

Gardiner added: “We have Nathan Vaughan, Wayne Thomas, Deon Burton, Lee Hughes and Sean Geddes missing, Dean Waldron carried off on Saturday and now we have had Jamie carried off.

"You can only manage what you have and the players who went out there were absolutely outstanding to a man.

“We are disappointed for Jamie and we were for Deano — that’s his third game here and the third time he’s been carried off. We’re just hoping it’s not too serious.”

Keeper Ethan Ross made his Aggborough debut and it was a first City start for Crewe Alexandra loanee Brown, who marked the occasion by scoring the winner.

Gardiner added: “I thought Andre's hold-up play was excellent. We’d talked about changing a few things just before he scored but he looked like he had another five or 10 more minutes in him.

“He gives us that threat in behind and it was a great run across the near post when he scored. Obviously, that’s good for his own personal development.

“Their two centre-halves are very good. I’ve watched Carl Piergianni and Scott Garner and they’re experienced at this level. I thought that, physically, Andre coped with them very well.

“He has to back it up with another performance but it was a good performance and I’m really pleased for him to get off the mark.”