MIDFIELDER Nathan Hayward says Worcester City are determined to “redeem” themselves when they visit Shepshed Dynamo tonight (7.45pm).

City’s efforts to gain promotion from the Midland League Premier Division suffered a setback last Saturday when they were held 0-0 by Boldmere St Michaels at the Victoria Ground.

Hayward, 26, admitted the home stalemate summed up their season as they failed to back up their 5-0 thrashing of Long Eaton United last Thursday.

But he is confident City will rediscover their scoring touch if they carve out opportunities.

“It was the story of our season on Saturday,” Hayward said.

“From having produced such a great performance on Thursday to then having a stalemate where we did not really create anything was frustrating.

“But all we can do now is look forward to tonight’s game and redeem ourselves.

“We need to create more chances. Boldmere worked really hard and gave us a bit of a battle.

“We had a couple of chances where we could have nicked the game but it did not turn out to be that way.

“Hopefully we can go back to the way we played against Long Eaton. If we can play like that I am pretty confident we will create a flurry of chances and go on to win the game.”

Worcester received a boost on Tuesday when second-placed Coleshill Town lost 2-0 at Highgate United.

Although only a better goal difference now keeps City ahead of Highgate in third position, they are 10 points behind Coleshill with two games in hand.

And John Snape’s side will look to reduce that gap as they begin a busy batch of fixtures.

After tackling Shepshed at the Dovecote Stadium, Worcester travel to struggling South Normanton Athletic on Saturday (3pm) before hosting Westfields on Monday (3pm).

“It is going to be tiring and fatigue will kick in at some point,” Hayward said.

“But if we can beat Shepherd I am confident we can take all three points against South Normanton on Saturday and then kick on for the rest of the season.”

Right-sided player Bekir Halil is expected to return after serving his suspension and Hayward also reckons winger Alex Tomkinson (hamstring) will be fit to face Dynamo.

Tomkinson scored the winner in a 3-2 victory over Dynamo in September.

The Leicestershire side sit in 12th position after seeing off Lye Town 3-1 on Tuesday.

“Shepshed are a very good passing side so it will be a bit of a test,” Hayward added.

“But I am confident we can come away with maximum points.

“I do check the table to see how far we are behind (the top two).

“It is not impossible (to catch them) but the stalemate on Saturday didn’t help us as we could have closed the gap.

“All we can do is concentrate on our own performance and make sure we win most of our games, if not all of them, from now on.”