Tuesday, October 2, 2001

WORCESTER City were mugged 3-1 by rivals Moor Green last night in a Dr Martens Premier Division tale of missed chances.

After totally dominating the first 35 minutes City contrived to concede a sloppy goal and spent the rest of the night chasing the game.

The St George's Lane side started brightly and should have been a goal up inside the first minute.

An Allan Davies' cross fell kindly to Nathan Jukes eight yards out but his shot was saved only to fall even more kindly for Owen but the striker was denied his 16th goal of the season by a despairing lunge.

Spurred on by their early forays City produced a dazzling 35 minutes of football on a superb Moorlands playing surface.

Paul Carty and Darren Middleton linked well and with the movement of Mark Shepherd and Owen, created a fistful of chances.

On four minutes Davies struck a curling 25-yard free kick which was plucked out of the top corner by former Hereford United keeper, Andy De Bont, while in the 17th minute the Moors' defence scrambled clear after Shepherd headed across a crowded goal.

A wonderful piece of skill and strong run by Middleton in the 19th minute ended in a flashed shot across the goal and a Carty drive two minutes later flew narrowly wide.

With a City goal seemingly imminent, Moor Green promptly rewrote the script and scored a goal against the run of play in the 37th minute.

The visitors failed to clear their lines properly from a rare Moors' attack allowing the dangerous Nathan Lamey to cut in and unleash an unstoppable shot past the helpless Paul Wyatt.

A rejuvenated Moor Green then began to steal City's thunder and in the 54th minute giant forward John Gayle struck a second with a brilliant curling chip from the edge of the box.

Shepherd, playing against his former club, pulled one back in the 67th minute -- his first league goal for City.

But sloppy marking in the Worcester defence allowed Mark Crisp to restore the home side's two-goal advantage.

After the match Shepherd admitted his side just could not find the back of the net.

"We just couldn't finish, we played very well and in the first minute we had two very good chances," he said.

"They scored against the run of play because for 35 minutes we played absolutely superbly and yet we went into the break one down."

City boss John Barton described the result as disappointing. "We had them on the floor but couldn't finish them off," he said.

Worcester: Wyatt 6, Davies 7, Burrow 7, Heeley 7, Jukes 6 (Hyde 67, 6), Holloway 5 (Ellis 79), Middleton 7, Carty 7 (McFarlane 67, 6), Owen 6, Shepherd 8, Cottrill 7.

Attendance: 368.