Workington 0 Worcester City 0 (From Worcester News)

Workington 0 Worcester City 0

6:11pm Sunday 29th January 2012 in Reports

IT was a scrappy contest, but the point was a deserved one for Worcester City as they ended a disappointing sequence of four straight defeats.

Last season, Worcester made a wasted journey to west Cumbria, arriving to be told the match was frosted off.

The pitch was far from perfect on this latest trip north but it was heavy rain during the week which had caused the problems and home groundsman Jeff Curwen did well to get the game on.

But control was difficult, mistakes common and both teams would have felt hard done by if they had finished with nothing to show for their efforts.

Workington had three good opportunities to grab a first-half lead, while Worcester had a similar amount of chances to win after the break.

Manager Carl Heeley needed to end a blip which had left his side pointless in 2012 and this was a start, especially as City’s boss feels opponents Workington are in a false position, hovering above the third relegation place in Blue Square Bet North.

Heeley included new signing Greg Mills, a winger who has given Workington plenty of trouble in the past, and it was a promising start for the former Derby County player.

However, the stand-out attacker, on either side, was Danny Edwards on the opposite side and his battle with Workington left-back Anthony Wright was the highlight of a low-key contest.

Wright was Workington’s stand-out performer and the cut and thrust he had with Edwards was as refreshing as it was enthralling.

Edwards actually set up the first chance of the game on 18 minutes when he got on the end of a Mills cross to head across an inviting goal.

Unfortunately, Mike Symons couldn’t get on the end of it and Kyle May cleared for the home side. A 10-minute spell at the mid-way point enlivened a tedious first-half and Workington should really have turned round ahead.

On 20 minutes Lee Andrews swung over a left-wing cross and Paul Johnson almost signed off his loan spell with a goal.

He rose highest to make contact and a downward header flashed inches past the post with keeper Matt Sargeant beaten.

Then, two minutes later, Adam Main slipped in Phil McLuckie, who tore through on goal but Sargeant did well to narrow the angle and turn the shot behind for a corner.

Just before the interval, Workington had another good chance when skipper Dave Hewson set up Stuart Green in the box but his 10-yard shot lacked conviction and Sargeant went down to smother at the second attempt.

It was another slog in the second-half but this time Worcester fashioned the better chances, most of them on swift counter-attacks. Symons and Mills both went racing through but, under pressure from converging defenders, thrashed their shots just wide of the goal.

Home keeper Aaran Taylor only had to hold a flicked header by Danny Carey-Bertram from an Edwards cross on 70 minutes.

Workington had fair pressure with a couple of scrambles in the Worcester box, but generally the City defence, well marshalled by veteran Stuart Whitehead, coped without much trouble.