WORCESTER City have made some significant strides since the turn of the year.

They have gone from a club seemingly destined for relegation to one that is now on course for a mid-table finish.

Some may even suggest a top 10 place is not out of the question, although that might be a tad overly optimistic.

As it stands, Worcester are nine points clear of the drop zone and, while they have played more games than their rivals, the bottom three would have to seriously defy the form book to rein in the Blue and Whites.

More importantly, however, City's next two games are against two of three the sides immediately below them in Skrill North - at Gainsborough Trinity on Saturday (3pm) and home to Stalybridge Celtic the weekend after.

Victories in these would go a long way to securing Worcester's status at this level for another season. But defeat could pull them right back into the mix heading into the final 10 games of the campaign.

There is plenty at stake for Carl Heeley's side and the impact the next two games could have on their season is not lost on the players.

Left-back Tyler Weir said: "We want to win every game but we want to get away from the teams around us and into the top half of the league.

"We have got a couple of big games coming up which are winnable so we can try to get some breathing space between us and the bottom six.

"We are going into the games full of confidence and hopefully we will get three points on Saturday."

Weir believes City are a different animal to that which was crushed 6-1 at Bradford Park Avenue in early January, now recognised as the turning point of their season.

Although they were beaten 1-0 by new joint league leaders Telford United at Aggborough on Tuesday, the former Gloucester man says there is no disgrace in that.

In fact, he feels City could have salvaged something from the contest and can take plenty of positives heading to Gainsborough.

Weir said: "We have set high standards and we let ourselves down a bit in the first-half because we didn't reach those heights.

"At half-time we thought we could do better and the second-half was one the best we have played. We should have got at least a draw but we just couldn't get the goal.

"They are one of the best teams in the league and we gave them a good game. We're angry that we didn't get anything from it.

"A few months ago we would have crumbled at half-time but we kept on it and we could have scored a couple of goals ourselves in the second-half."