CRAIG Wilding notched his first goal of the season as Worcester City ended their Harrogate hoodoo.

The Yorkshire team are something of a bogey side for City, having beaten them five times out of six before Saturday's contest.

But Wilding, who faces a spell on the sidelines with a hernia, smashed home a 63rd-minute rebound to cancel out Lee Whittington's first-half opener and earn a share of the spoils.

Both sides then had good chances to emerge with all three points but good goalkeeping and last-ditch defending ensured parity.

Wilding, a substitute at Telford, was on from the start as Andy Preece opted for a 3-4-3 system but he was again forced into a defensive re-shuffle with Rapinder Gill suspended and Chris Smith suffering with a mouth abscess.

Teenager Patrece Liburd made his debut in a back three with Danny Hodnett and Ryan Clarke, and produced a man-of-the-match performance.

Yet City struggled in the first-half and were immediately put under the cosh as Harrogate threatened to run riot.

The hosts created precious few chances and had to wait until mid-way through the half before Wilding registered their first effort on target.

Their best opportunity fell to George Clegg but he curled a free-kick harmlessly over the bar.

Harrogate, though, could have been out of sight by the interval. Roy Hunter forced Danny McDonnell to spring to his right to push away a drive before a Whittington volley landed on the crossbar with the keeper beaten.

McDonnell could also do little about Whittington's goal on 45 minutes, the Harrogate striker's miscued shot wrong-footing the City custodian before trickling over the line.

Seconds later, the woodwork intervened again to deny Kirk Jackson heading Neil Aspin's side two up.

City woke up after the break and within five minutes had seen Adam Webster drive an effort into the side netting.

Danks, moments after being cautioned for a late challenge, also went close but his header from Emeka Nwadike's cross was too high.

Then came the equaliser. Danks cut into the danger area and forced Curtis Aspden to get down low to block his close-range strike.

However, the ball came back out to Wilding near the penalty spot and he turned before drilling it into the roof of the net.

As the clock ticked down, so the game opened up and became more frantic with a flurry of chances at either end.

City replaced Clegg with Troy Wood while Harrogate, who had already introduced Chris Bettney and had Mark Hume booked, switched the injured Whittington with James McGarry.

That only seemed to stretch the game further and made the contest an end-to-end affair.

Webster had an effort saved by Aspden on 81 minutes before Clarke timed a tackle on McGarry superbly to deny the Harrogate substitute when clean through.

McDonnell then produced an excellent point-blank block from Bettney's header, a save equalled seconds later when Wilding, having been played in by Paul Barratt, was thwarted when one-on-one with Aspden.

Dave Merris then fired just wide for the visitors and new boy Liburd was in the right place to hack Hunter's shot off the line in the closing seconds.