JORDAN Murphy hopes his match-winning performance against Hednesford Town can kick-start another run in the Worcester City side.

The Walsall loanee returned to the starting line-up on Tuesday night after being dropped to the bench for City’s previous four matches.

And the 19-year-old made an immediate impact at Keys Park as he struck on three minutes with a clinical finish past Dan Crane.

The goal was enough to secure City all three points and Murphy has now targeted a starting place at Bradford Park Avenue today (3pm).

“It was a great feeling on Tuesday, especially as I had come back into the side and I felt I had something to prove,” he said.

“I wanted to show that I deserved my starting place and I would like to think that performance has gone some way to achieving that.

“Naturally when you are not playing you can get frustrated, but at the end of the day the managers pick the team they think can do a job.

“I have come back in, I had a job to do and I would like to think that I did it. I definitely haven’t done myself any harm with the performance and the goal, so we’ll see if I am in the team this weekend.”

Murphy, who has made 14 appearances for the Vanarama National League North outfit this season, also believes his early goal was key City’s win over relegation-threatened Hednesford.

“In games like that, you have to battle hard for each other and try and get the three points,” he said.

“Getting the goal early on was massive and set us in good stead for the rest of the game.

“We were always going to come under pressure in the second half because they needed points.

“But we managed to see the game out.”

The victory at Hednesford also saw City move seven points clear of the drop zone but Murphy insisted it was important his side continued to climb the table.

“We are a lot closer now to being safe, but we need to keep getting points on the board in the coming weeks and see where we finish,” he said.

“We have got three away games, but that doesn’t faze us as we have got a good enough squad to do the business.

“We want to get four wins from the next four games. That may not be possible, but that’s got to be our goal.”