WORCESTER City could be forced to apply for an emergency loan if keeper Matt Sargeant fails to shake off a thigh strain.

Sargeant sustained the injury during the 1-0 victory at Bishop’s Stortford on Tuesday but was able to play on.

But with Glyn Thompson also out with a thigh problem, manager Carl Heeley is potentially without a keeper for this Saturday’s Blue Square Bet North trip to Brackley.

The deadline for registering players has passed but clubs can ask the Football Conference to make exceptions in an emergency.

Heeley said: “We’ve got to monitor the situation with Matt with Glyn Thompson being injured.

“They’re the only two keepers we’ve got registered so we may have a problem there.

“Under normal circumstances we’d go and get a loan keeper but we’ve gone past the deadline and we’d need to get special dispensation to get a keeper in.

“We’ll have to monitor that and we may have to take that approach.”

Meanwhile, Tom Thorley said he knew his match-winning free-kick against Bishop’s Stortford was goal-bound the moment he struck the ball.

The midfielder’s 62nd-minute strike secured a 1-0 success at Woodside Park and lifted his team up to 13th in the table.

It was Thorley’s sixth goal of the campaign and came just three days after he had seen a similar set-piece rattle the woodwork against Hinckley United.

He said: “I thought the one on Saturday had gone in which would have been nice but it’s been a while since I’ve got a goal so I’m really chuffed.

“It was one of those when as soon as it left the boot I knew it was going in so it was a relief and for it to be the winning goal was fantastic.

“My last goal was against Hinckley away in November which is not good enough and is something I’ve been looking to improve.”

Boss Heeley added: “I thought it was a good, solid performance. We defended extremely well.”