DANIEL Nti’s fourth goal of the season secured a 1-1 draw against play-off contenders Boston United at Aggborough last night (Tuesday).
City’s top scorer levelled things up early in the second period after Coner Robinson had slammed the visitors ahead in the first half.
The hosts spent the majority of the game camped in United’s half but couldn’t turn their possession into goals as Carl Heeley celebrated his new contract with a hard-fought point.
A succession of throw-ins down the City left started proceedings off slowly but eventually one came good as Tyler Weir found Danny Jackman in a bit of space and the midfielder jinked inside two men but lashed his drive over the top.
The Worcester-born midfielder came even closer after six minutes when Nti was brought down on the edge of the box Jackman stepped up and curled the resulting free-kick narrowly past the post.
It was a cagey opening 20 minutes as Weir was restricted to a 30-yard drive which fell gratefully in Paul Farman’s arms before Robinson curled one over for Boston in their first meaningful attack at the Worcester rearguard.
Man-of-the-match from Saturday’s FA Cup success Sean Geddes had the visitors back-line sweating a minute later when he fizzed in a free-kick which bounced up infront of Farman who flapped at the first attempt before getting his foot to the loose ball and removed the danger.
Liam Marrs was brought on for the visitors to replace the injured Zak Mills after 24 minutes and the substitute was in the thick of the action eight minutes later when he managed to block Nti’s header on the line from another Jackman corner.
And after 35 minutes the deadlock was broken – albeit against the run of play – when Rene Steer beat Nti far too easily down the left and whipped a ball in for Robinson whose initial header was brilliantly kept out by Jose Veiga but the striker followed up and slammed home the opener.
It could have been 2-0 two minutes after but George Williams put his body on the line to divert Kyle Dixon’s goal-bound effort behind for a corner.
The Blue and Whites came out a different prospect in the second period and after Conner Marshall had ballooned over for United four minutes in the hosts took control and levelled things up.
Nti received the ball with his back to goal on the edge of the D, rolled his man brilliantly and curled his effort past the despairing Farman into the bottom corner.
If the first half was uninspiring the second was far from it as Mike Symons drilled an effort into the side netting before Connor Gater was twice denied by the Boston stopper as Worcester utilised their pace on the counter-attack.
The Pilgrims goal was leading a charmed life and Geddes stung the finger tips of Farman twice in two minutes with drives from outside the box before Weir burst through a static Boston defence and was denied by the keeper once more with 17 minutes to go.
With almost the last kick of the game Dennis Greene’s men could have snatched an unlikely three points but Dayle Southwell had his effort palmed away by Veiga as Worcester secured another point which sees them climb to 10th.
Manager Heeley said: “I think we showed a lot of character tonight and played really, really well again.
“I think after we got our equaliser for probably the next 25 to 30 minutes we had Boston on the ropes and it just looked a matter of time until we got a winner but credit to Boston they dug in there and their keeper has pulled off a couple of saves and they finished quite strongly in the last ten minutes.
“The boys are a little bit disappointed not to win the game but you take something from it, if you don’t win try not to get beat and that’s a positive that we got something out the game this evening.”
Attendance: 422
To find out how the game unfolded in our live blog, click here.