MANAGER Carl Heeley hailed Worcester City’s “great” response at Curzon Ashton after they came from behind to seal their place in the first round of the FA Trophy.

Paul Ennis opened the scoring for Curzon at the Tameside Stadium, but for the third time this season, City fought back to claim the honours, with Chekaine Steele coming off the bench to score an 80th-minute winner.

Heeley said he was “delighted” for his players, who secured £4,000 in prize money for the club and an “attractive” tie at Vanarama National League outfit York City a week on Saturday (3pm).

“In fairness to Curzon, they are one of the best sides in the league at keeping the ball, they pass it really well and their ball retention is good,” said Heeley, whose side’s other comeback victories came against Alfreton Town (5-3) and AFC Telford United (3-1) in September.

“For 20 minutes we had to keep our shape and just be difficult to breakdown.

“Unfortunately we went a goal down when we tried to play out and the ball got cut out which was probably the wrong decision.

“But our response after that was great.”

Connor Hughes levelled the scores on 35 minutes before City shrugged off the disappointment of Colby Bishop’s second-half penalty miss with a late goal from Steele, who had only been on the pitch two minutes.

However, Heeley admitted the victory could have been “more convincing” after “battering” Curzon at times in the second period.

“We missed two great chances, but we kept going, kept plugging away and Hughes scored a great goal from a ball in from Micah Evans,” Heeley continued.

“We then bossed the game and at times in the second half we battered them.

“We passed the ball well, looked a major threat and probably (the win) should have been more convincing.

“But I am delighted with the win and we have now got an attractive tie to look forward to in the next round.”

He added: “We do look like a threat going forward and we have consistently shown that this season.

“We have probably had three or four great chances and missed a penalty, but we have got goals in us “Their goalkeeper was their best player and that tells you a lot about our dominance as the game wore on.”

It was the second time in three days Worcester had made the trip to Curzon after Saturday’s tie was called off due to a frozen pitch.

And Heeley also praised his side’s “character” on a “freezing” night in Greater Manchester with a mere 193 supporters watching on.

“When you are 1-0 down and it’s a freezing cold night with no atmosphere it took a lot of character and a good performance, so I am delighted for the boys,” he said.

“I thought they applied themselves really well and thoroughly deserved our win.”