MANAGER Carl Heeley is happy with the size of the Worcester City squad despite the departure of Jay Denny.

The defensive midfielder, one of the summer recruits at St George’s Lane, has signed for Blue Square Bet North rivals Solihull Moors and played in Saturday’s 1-1 FA Cup second qualifying round draw against Westfields.

Denny, who missed the first three games of the season through suspension, only made one start for Worcester in the 0-0 draw at Histon this month.

His departure leaves Heeley with 20 players but Matt Birley has a knee injury and fellow midfielder Josh Smith and striker Dan Polan are on loan at Bridgnorth and Evesham respectively.

The City boss, however, is not about to rush into replacing Denny ahead of Saturday’s home league match against Harrogate Town (3pm). He said: “We’re fine on numbers. If we were to get a couple of injuries we may need to reassess it but, at the moment, we’re OK.

“We’ve got a squad of 18 plus Dan and Josh. It’s workable but if anybody becomes available that we feel improves the balance of the squad then we may consider it. It’s caught us a little bit on the hop. I didn’t expect Jay to be leaving before last weekend but we’ll see. There’s nothing in the pipeline.”

Heeley pointed to the 4-0 FA Cup win at Gornal Athletic as an example of the squad’s strength after Charlie Reece and Greg Mills added second-half pace as substitutes.

The draw for the third qualifying round is made today and Heeley added: “It would be nice to get a home draw. I think we’re overdue one.”