Saturday, September 22, 2001

A SPECTACULAR solo goal from Darren Middleton sealed a comfortable 3-1 home win for Worcester City against King's Lynn in the Dr Martens Premier Division.

The victory injected a much-needed confidence boost into a City side that has struggled to find the net in recent games.

Phil Stant opened the scoring in the 31st minute following a quick corner from Ian Cottrill to Allan Davies which the full back swung in for the veteran striker to head powerfully past Steve Wilson from close range.

The forward had earlier missed from eight yards following an inswinging cross from Cottrill in the 25th minute but headed straight at Wilson who made an instinctive save.

Middleton had a chance to put City ahead as early as the fourth minute when one-on- one with Wilson but shot tamely at the keeper.

The midfielder spurned another chance on 26th minute when he found space on the left but fired across the goal.

In the 38th minute Marc Burrow found Middleton lurking on the left and he cut in and curled a right foot shot inches past Wilson's left hand post and at that stage it seemed he was set to endure another frustrating day in front of goal.

The visitors created little and keeper Paul Wyatt in the Worcester goal made only one save of note in the first 45 minutes when he stopped a snap shot from Lyndon Rowland in the 24th minute.

Worcester went into the break one up and immediately after the restart Stant broke free on the right but his ambitious lob landed just the wrong side of the bar on the roof of the net.

City doubled their lead in the 62th minute when Mark Owen coolly converted a penalty (the 99th goal of his City career) after Middleton was fouled by Jason Minett as he latched onto a Paul Carty through ball.

Carty, playing in the centre of midfield, was the fulcrum for City and much of their best moves emanated through him.

"For 70 minutes Paul was probably the best player on the pitch and showed what he was capable of," said City's first team coach, Mick Tuohy.

"Unfortunately we don't see enough of it with injuries and other things but Paul is capable of delivering that performance every week."

In the 66th minute Middleton wrapped things up when he picked the ball up inside his own half and ran at the Linnets defence, waltzing through two defenders on the way, before sliding the ball past a helpless Wilson to put City 3-0 up.

It was a brilliant goal and with his superb winner against Hinckley United as well, Middleton is forging a reputation as a scorer of brilliant goals.

Tuohy was delighted with both the result and Middleton's goal.

"We felt this was our biggest game of the season because of the fact that we have drawn five games and dropped off the pace slightly," he said.

"We are always going to get chances and we could quite easily be sitting on top of the league with the chances we've created.

"I'm particularly pleased for Middleton who perhaps could be alongside Mark as leading scorer with the chances he's had.

"It was an outstanding goal. There's no tap-ins for Darren, it's either sensational goals or nothing."

The Linnets grabbed a consolation goal in the 76th minute through substitute Jamie Clarke but Tuohy was happy to dwell on the three points despite a disappointing last 15 minutes that saw Owen limp off.

"We know we needed to take all the points before we go into the cup competitions and we're very pleased although it was a little bit tainted by the last 15 minutes where we dropped off slightly," he said.