WORCESTER City’s new year got off to the worst possible start with a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Bradford Park Avenue in the Skrill Conference North on Saturday (January 4).
Ethan Moore opened the scoring for the visitors but goals from Nicky Boshell, Jordan Deacey and Paul Beesley, put The Avenue in control at half-time.
The onslaught continued after the break with Adam Clayton, a Boshell penalty and a debut strike from Ross Gardner condemning Carl Heeley’s men to their heaviest defeat since last March.
The warning signs were there early on for City when Beesley’s clinical finish was ruled out for offside shortly before Ellis Deeney’s perfect chip found Moore who poked past John Lamb to give his side the lead.
Bradford equalised three minutes later when captain Nathan Hotte drilled a low cross into Boshell and the midfielder toe-poked home.
The visitors spurned a golden chance to re-take the lead when Tyler Weir broke free and found Moore, but City’s top scorer spurned his effort over the bar from just three yards out.
That miss proved costly as within minutes Worcester found themselves 3-1 down when Deacey nodded in an Alex Davidson cross before Boshell supplied Beesley to tap home from close range.
Richard Taundry almost reduced the arrears after the break but his powerful 25-yard drive was brilliantly tipped away by Lamb as Heeley’s men looked to stage a comeback.
That, however, never escalated as the hosts made it 4-1 thanks to a Clayton header and Boshell doubled his tally for the afternoon from the spot to put Bradford firmly in control.
With minutes remaining City were hit for six as Gardner met a Paul Walker cross to side-foot into the bottom corner and claim his first goal for the mid-table side.
Manger Heeley, whose side are now just three points off the bottom, was seething with his players’ performance.
“I was not impressed,” he said. “It’s embarrassing when you get beaten that easily. We have shown as a team this season and in recent performances, like Solihull away, what we can do.
“But it’s just not the same application as we had at Bradford, you can’t fluctuate between performances that much, it’s not good enough.
“We had quite a few players who weren’t there on the day and went missing.
“I am really really angry, but we have got another game tomorrow (Tuesday) and that’s the good thing about this league, there are plenty of opportunities to try and put it right.”
Heeley will be looking for a reaction from his side when they host AFC Telford tomorrow night (Tuesday) at Aggborough.
Picture by Rob Bazley.
