Worcester City 2-1 Leamington
Vanarama Conference North
Jonny Bonell reports from Aggborough
Attendance: 859
TWO GOALS in four second half minutes secured a fifth win in six for Worcester City today (Saturday) as rivals Leamington were the latest team to leave Aggborough empty handed.
Nick Wright and Graham Hutchison inflicted the damage, the second a free-kick routine straight off the training ground, before Danny Newton pulled one back with three minutes to go.
There was to be no FA Cup hangover for Worcester, who have now gone ten games unbeaten and have scored twice in each of their last six outings.
It was far from the opening 15 minutes Carl Heeley’s men subjected Coventry to a week ago as Worcester struggled to get a foothold in a game where Mike Symons miscued header was the best chance to note.
The Brakes were looking to avenge their 2-0 FA Cup defeat in Kidderminster three weeks ago and danger man Stefan Moore looked their biggest threat as he slashed his effort from the edge of the box wide before Nathan Vaughan had to be quick off his line to deny the striker at his feet.
Full-back George Williams was marauding the right hand side and Wright split the Leamington defence to find him once more after 28 minutes. City’s player of the year burst into the box but drilled his first shot straight at Matt Morch before his follow-up header was also kept out by the stopper.
The presence of Symons was causing the Warwickshire outfit cause for concern and he flicked back a Tyler Weir cross to the edge of the box but Danny Jackman’s drilled effort took a nick and flew narrowly past the post.
Mistakes started to creep into Worcester’s game after the restart and Weir’s poor clearance presented Lee Chilton with a chance on the edge of the box which he snatched at and scuffed wide.
The Blue and Whites did get a foothold in proceedings after 50 minutes and it was Williams again who was looking to break the deadlock when his cross from the right was met by Daniel Nti who flicked his header wide.
Williams then presented himself with a chance after 52 minutes when Symons held off four Leamington defenders to feed the full-back on the right. He cut in but lashed his shot across the face and behind.
Paul Holleran’s side should have opened the scoring mid-way through the second period when a Stephan Morley free-kick caused havoc in the hosts box and when the ball fell to Newton the striker smashed his drive wide.
The game turned on it’s head after 76 minutes when substitute Connor Gater’s strike from the edge of the box was superbly tipped behind by Morch, but Wright was on hand to head the hosts into the lead from the resulting corner.
Just three minutes later and the lead was doubled. Cup hero Sean Geddes won a free-kick on the right-hand side and a clever routine between himself and Ellis Deeney saw the former Manchester United trainee whip the ball to the front post for Hutchison to flick through Morch’s legs.
A nervous finale was set up when Morley’s free-kick picked out the unmarked Newton to head home, but there was to be no repeat of the 2-2 draw between the sides last time out as the hosts clinched another three points.
To see how the game unfolded in our live blog, click here.