Shepherd can make big impact says Barty

The 23-year-old, who's joined City from Dr Martens League Premier Division rivals Moor Green, made a positive start when coming on as a substitute in the midweek victory at Clevedon and came close to marking his debut with a goal.

Barton hopes the next two months will help convince him to make a permanent move for the former Kidderminster Harriers player at the end of the season.

"He has come to the club with something to prove, and he wants desperately to prove it," said the City boss. "That's always nice from a manager's point of view.

"It will be interesting to see how he goes from now until the end of the season."

Shepherd's move to City was something of a surprise considering his impressive record with Moor Green -- he had scored 73 goals in 173 games at the Moorlands, and was their leading league scorer this season with eight goals.

But Barton hopes he can be the missing link in terms of being the right strike partner for the prolific Mark Owen.

He added: "The agreement with him is what has been published.

"We haven't hidden anything from him and he is happy with the situation, and we are happy to take him under those guidelines.

"It is a quite refreshing approach that he has come to the club with. People generally tend come to Worcester City to get improved contracts -- this is far from the case with Mark."

One advantage with Shepherd is that he represents a saving on the wage bill in comparison to Carl Tranter, who was released by the club last week.

The former Bridgnorth and Kingstonian striker never lived up to the excellent start he made to his City career -- four goals in his first five matches -- and injury blighted his final months at St George's Lane, managing just two further goals after his early burst.

But the major part he played in shaking City out of the doldrums after their catastrophic August Bank Holiday weekend cannot be understated, and I'm sure it won't be too long before he finds another club.