Saturday, January 29, 2000

WORCESTER City are beginning to make a habit of spectacular comebacks.

Having fought back from two goals down to beat Blakenall 4-2 in midweek, John Barton's men did it again -- scoring three times in the last 20 minutes to win 3-1 at Salisbury City on Saturday.

Two goals from Sam Bowen and Mark Owen made it six successive victories in all competitions and, remarkably, they have won 12 of their 16 games since Barton took over from Graham Allner in November.

More importantly, City climbed three more places thanks to other results going in their favour and are now 12th in the Dr Martens League Premier Division -- a position that would have been unthinkable a few weeks ago.

But it would be wise not to get carried away yet -- they are at the head of a group of five clubs all on 31 points, and are still only six points outside the drop zone.

However, the confidence engendered by this impressive run can only stand City in good stead for the rest of the season -- and for next Saturday's FA Umbro Trophy fourth round tie at Stalybridge Celtic.

Barton said afterwards: "It is a great response to what has been asked of them. Some players who have received criticism in the early part of the season can take plaudits for their recent efforts.

"I thought the conditions made it a pretty poor game to be honest. But you can't hide behind the conditions for some of the failings we showed in the first half.

"We didn't have a lot of good possession. We got in a couple of times through Mark and Sam but we gave possession away a little bit too easily at times.

"With games like this against sides in their position, which was better than ours before kick-off, you have to tough it out with them. Even though we were 1-0 down at half-time the game wasn't beyond us, and it proved that way.

"Sometimes there are things in the game that go for you. They have hit the underside of the bar with a free-kick and the game could have gone out of our reach, similar to the Bromley situation.

"But in the last half-hour there was only one side in the game. Sam took his second goal extremely well and Mark's was a good striker's goal."

The conditions played a big part in determining the pattern of play. A very strong wind, which City had to play against in the first half, meant they spent most of the time on the defensive and showed little at the other end.

They could do little about the opening goal on 29 minutes, Paul Sales giving Danny Watson no chance with a superb volley from the edge of the area.

An already heavily depleted City side, lacking the likes of Mark Tucker, Kevin Willetts and Keith Knight, were further hit at the interval when Martin Weir had to go off with a recurrence of a rib injury.

That meant Nathan Jukes, who started the game at left-back, had to slot into the centre of defence with young Steve Frost coming on to fill the left-back berth.

But Jukes adapted well to his unfamiliar role alongside Carl Heeley, while Frost pushed forward well and made quite a nuisance of himself at corners.

But even so, it still took City quite a long time to get going after the break despite having the elements in their favour, and they were lucky not to go further behind on the hour when Ian Savage's 25-yard free-kick struck the bar with Watson well beaten.

Eventually with Paul Carty and Steve Lutz getting a grip in the centre of midfield, City began to take control although how Bowen managed to take an air-shot when John Deakin's fine cross found him unmarked at the far post, only he will know.

But it took two goals in two minutes to finally turn the match on its head, the first on 70 minutes when Deakin's corner was headed on by Heeley and Bowen scrambled the ball home from close range.

Straight from the kick-off City came forward again, and Lutz's shot spun off a defender and fell nicely for Bowen to drill home an angled shot from 15 yards for his fifth goal in two matches.

City's first ever victory at the Raymond McEnhill Stadium was sealed in the 79th minute when the otherwise quiet Jon Purdie put in a great cross from the right and Owen scored his 22nd goal of the season with a powerful downward header.