Saturday, September 24, 2005

WORCESTER City enjoyed a comfortable FA Cup stroll in the park -- if only it was this easy in Nationwide North.

Steve Slade glumly predicted a punishing run-around for his young Bemerton side. And so it materialised as City thrashed down seven goals at St George's Lane in a heavily lop-sided second qualifying round tie.

Neat strikes from Liam McDonald and Nick Colley sent Worcester on their merry way, before Adam Webster and Leon Kelly treated themselves to braces when the contest turned into a target practice exercise.

But the biggest cheer was reserved for 16-year-old midfielder Sam Wedgbury, who raised the roof with a belting 20-yard goal on his debut.

Wedgbury is just a first-year youngster at City's academy, but he showed maturity beyond his teenage years after coming on as a substitute for hamstring-victim Colley.

This was simple fare for City in their easiest cup contest in many, many years. Andy Preece's side may be out of form and low on confidence after picking up just one league win this season. But they packed too mighty a punch for timid Quins.

The Wiltshire outfit, strugglers in Sydenham Wessex Division One, were hopelessly out of their depth.

A mis-match all the way, it is no exaggeration to suggest that Worcester should have clocked up double figures in the goals column given their supreme dominance.

Kelly struck twice but missed three separate sitters, not ideal for a striker desperate to regain his place in the starting line-up.

"We've been capable of scoring goals," said player-boss Preece. "We have created enough chances this season to have given someone a pasting.

"Obviously, it was against lesser opposition so we are not getting carried away. We've done the job we had to do and that was getting through to the next round. That was the most important thing, whether it was a scrappy 1-0 or an entertaining 7-0.

"We could have had a lot more, but we know it's a cup game. We still have got a lot of work to do in the league and it will be a different story at Lancaster this Saturday.

"But we can take the confidence, the goals and the clean sheet out of it. It was nice to have a decent performance, but we know in the league that we have got to do better. We've just got to keep going and keep believing that things will come right."

Preece added: "Sam came on and did well. He did a good job for us and took his goal ever so well.

"I was pleased to get him involved for a good part of the game and I would have liked to have got Troy Wood out there as well. But because we had so many injuries, it was not possible to do that."

McDonald, another academy graduate, backed up his fine display at Moor Green with another faultless effort on the left-hand side of midfield.

He arrived on cue to give Worcester the lead on 17 minutes, slipping a low shot past Bemerton 'keeper Luke Hadiland after neat work from Webster.

City piled forward incessantly once parity was broken, but it was a struggle finding a second goal.

Hadiland tipped Colley's drive around the post, Kelly dragged a left-foot shot wide after bursting clear on goal, while Chris Smith's looping header struck the crossbar.

Colley did find the target after teaming up with Kelly outside the penalty box. Webster made it three with a glancing header before the interval.

Webster scored again on 52 minutes, forcing home a near-post header that carried too much power for Hadiland.

On the hour, Kelly put his name to the scoresheet, cushioning Rob Warner's cross into the bottom corner.

It was then time for Wedgbury to savour his big moment, collecting a square pass from McDonald before lashing spectacularly past Hadiland's despairing dive. The misery continued for Quins when Kelly and Warner again combined for the seventh goal.

Kelly failed in his hat-trick bid, Hadiland first beating away his well-executed over-head kick, while a diving header from three yards smashed into the turf and over the bar.

CITY: McDonnell, Warner, Khan, Smith, Thompson, Lyttle, Warmer, Colley (Wedgbury 34), McDonald, Webster (Jones 53), Preece (Kelly 15). Subs not used: Hodnett, Wood. ATTENDANCE: 579.