RAY Woods, Worcester City's youth development officer, is hoping his players can learn from their Worcestershire FA Youth Cup final disappointment.

City's youngsters were beaten 2-0 by Redditch United at Walshes Meadow, the home of Stourport Swifts, with second-half goals from Adam Mitchell and Rickal Manning.

Woods' charges, third in the Midland Floodlit Youth League Premier Division, were favourites to win against their southern section rivals but were outplayed, particularly after the break.

"It was very, very disappointing," he said. "The boys chose the match to give their worst performance they have given all season.

"The boys just produced a dreadful second-half. Redditch put pressure on them and they thoroughly deserved to win.

"We had 13 first years in the squad, which is no excuse because that's been the case for most of the season. They just seemed to freeze on the night.

"I can't complain because Redditch completely dominated the game in the second-half."

He added: "If we take things in context, those 13 are going to be second years next year and will have learned from it."

Woods was frustrated by the fact City put runaway league leaders Tamworth to the sw-ord earlier this month but failed to produce the goods against the Reds.

He said: "We dominated Tamworth, who are probably the best team at our level, two weeks ago despite losing 2-1.

"With the greatest of respect to Redditch, we were epxecting to win the cup final and we didn't. We didn't perform anything like we can and that hurts."

The defeat comes on the back of last month's Midland Combination Division Two Challenge Vase semi-final 3-1 aggregate loss against Cov-entry Sphinx reserves.

However, City are likely to avoid relegation from Division Two, their Saturday competition under the banner of Worcester City A', and can still finish second in the Floodlit Premier. They also had more than 30 players turn up for their recruitment trials for next season's academy.