Saturday, November 10, 2001

IT could be a long hard winter ahead for Worcester City judging by their efforts against Cambridge City which saw them fall to their first home defeat of the season.

The Lilywhites came from a goal down to win 2-1 with a thunderous strike from Adam Wilde who ghosted in unmarked at the back post to round off a depressing week for City.

Injuries have exposed the lack of real depth in John Barton's squad (even one of the substitutes -- Jamie Hyde was injured) and this patched-up 11 looked very one paced with no real cutting edge.

Despite odd bursts of play City never looked likely to score again after Mark Shepherd had given them a fifth-minute lead with a glancing header from a Darren Bullock free kick.

Jon Holloway came closest in the second half when he fed on a Phil Stant flick to hook the ball past Nicky Rust but Jack Wignall cleared off the line.

City made a decent fist of the first half with Bullock driving his side on and going close with two headers but there was little to excite the crowd bar fussy referee Cameron Dawes, who deemed punches and cynical tackles punishable by five minute chats rather than yellow cards.

Goalkeeper Danny McDonnell, starting his first game for more than two months, had little to do in the first half except pick the ball out of the net and pull off one superb finger-tip save from a Neil Pope volley.

The equaliser arrived in the 15th minute from an innocuous long throw from Martin Fox that Kevin Wilkin back-headed over McDonnell despite being surrounded by City defenders.

Holloway was denied in the 57th minute and Andy Ellis played a one-two with Allan Davies to cross for Stant who headed against a defender for a corner.

The winner came from a rare Lilywhites attack in the 76th minute when Wilde caught City's defence ball-watching to steal in and fire an unstoppable shot past McDonnell.

St George's Lane has seen some miraculous escapes this season but the only miracle on Saturday came for Cambridge late on when substitute Steve Holden escaped with a yellow after punching Holloway before falling like a dead weight, leaving the referee to book Holloway as well.

One City player who will remember the match is Lee Goodman who made his Dr Martens Premier debut when he replaced Ellis in the 90th minute.

After the match Barton felt his team had displayed glimpses of form but admitted his team were badly missing the likes of Darren Middleton and Mark Owen and other key players.

"There were decent spells in the game today but we are just not seeing it through --the game is 90 minutes but we haven't shown the conviction to establish ourselves after getting a lead," he said.

"The subs bench tells its own story. We've got Lee Goodman who is 18, Jamie Hyde who was injured and Dwain McFarlane another youngster.

"Owen, Middleton, Greenman, Carty, Cottrill -- the legs in the side are not there and it's taking its toll."

Meanwhile, City have re-arranged their two outstanding league games.

The trip to Crawley Town will now be on Saturday, December 1 (3pm), while they visit Tiverton Town on Wednesday, December 19 (7.45).