Tuesday, July 31, 2001

A SUPERB strike from Sutton Coldfield Town's Mark Bellingham condemned Worcester City to their second consecutive away defeat last night.

Manager, John Barton, will have been relieved this was just a friendly because City were below par and lacklustre in all areas of the field.

Trialist strikers Darren Middleton and Phil Stant displayed one or nice touches but overall had little to feed on as City struggled to impose themselves on their lower league opponents.

Sutton's pacy front duo of Bellingham and Leon Mitchell exposed the City defence on several occasions and overall they created better chances.

Mitchell forced Danny McDonnell into action as early as the fifth minute with a rising shot that was well saved and on 20 minutes the diminutive Richie Gardner headed just wide from a free-kick.

A Stant cross-volley and Ian Reed blocked shot were City's only real efforts of note in the first 45 minutes.

Six minutes after the break substitue keeper Paul Wyatt was forced to pull off a brilliant save from Bellingham after he burst past Matt Gardiner.

Bellingham broke the deadlock on 65 minutes when good Sutton pressure resulted in the striker picking up the ball on the edge of the area and he cut in and unleashed an absolute screamer into the top corner past a helpless Wyatt in the Worcester goal.

City's best chance fell to substitute Lee Goodman who dragged a left foot shot wide on 80 minutes and a minute from time Stant pounced on a poor back header but his shot was deflected for a corner.

Martin Weir and Reed sustained knocks and Mark Owen, Mark Shepherd, Paul Carty, Allan Davies and Nathan Jukes were all missing due to injury.

Coach Mick Tuohy admitted it was a disappointing performance and said the trialists had little chance to impress.

"Our delivery to the front men and support was not particularly good and so it was not fair to make a judgement because of that," he said.

But Tuohy said the biggest worry was the number of injuries the squad was picking up.

"It has been a real worry the number of injuries we have picked up in the last two games," he said.

"If it had been in two-and-a-half weeks time at the start of the season it would have been even more of a worry."

Worcester: McDonnell, Gardiner, Heeley, Weir, Holloway, M. Wyatt, Ellis, Stant, Middleton, Reed.