Saturday, October 27, 2001

LIKE a badly beaten boxer clinging to the ropes for survival, Worcester City emerged battered and bruised to fight another day after an en-thralling 2-2 FA Cup clash at Belper Town.

That they clung on for a draw is in no small measure to the referee who waved away loud and convincing appeals for a penalty on 81 minutes after Nathan Jukes appeared to trip winger Brendan Morgan.

Despite twice taking the lead, and having a third goal ruled out, City produced a poor display in this fourth qualifying round tie and the defence endured a torrid afternoon at the hands of the lively Morgan and the shaven-headed Karl Payne.

Fortunately for John Barton's men the sporting gods were in benign mood enabling City to ride huge amounts of luck and hold on for a replay at St George's Lane tonight.

After the match City's assistant boss, Mick Tuohy, admitted his side had been lucky and revealed manager John Barton had had some harsh words for his players. "We have literally got out of jail," said Tuohy.

"There were probably a few lucky teams in the draw at five o'clock and we were definitely one of them.

"All credit to Belper, who played very well in the second-half, and I honestly think we are very fortunate to have another bite of the cherry.

"John's had some harsh words and most of the players feel they've lost the game because of their performances and we're very grateful to have another chance."

Belper twice came from behind against Worcester and their performance belied their lowly position near the foot of Unibond League Division One.

The match started scrappily with Worcester's goalkeeper Paul Wyatt called into action as early as the second minute when defender Marc Burrow diverted a header past his team-mate, forcing Wyatt to hastily back track.

Skipper Carl Heeley broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute when he rose to loop a glancing header over former Hereford United goalkeeper Andy Quy.

But Belper were level within two minutes when captain Steve Kennedy headed powerfully home from a free kick.

City enjoyed their best spell of the match at the start of the second period and restored their advantage in the 51st minute.

A quickly taken free-kick by Darren Bullock put Phil Stant clear on the right and the striker squared the ball enabling Darren Middleton to slide the ball home from close range.

A minute later Stant headed a Jukes' cross in at the back post, but the referee ruled the ball had crossed the byeline before the defender whipped the ball over.

That proved to be the turning point and heralded a shift in favour of the home side who squared the match five minutes later.

Burrow failed to deal with a high ball allowing Payne to cross for Carl Cunningham whose downward header was scooped in by Morgan.

In the 71st minute Wyatt was out quickly to save at the feet of Morgan.

Jukes was being run ragged by Morgan as he threatened to cause an upset in front of the BBC cameras.

City played their get out of jail card free with nine minutes remaining when Jukes appeared to clip Morgan, but the referee waved play on much to the fury of the crowd.

Four minutes later Belper had another penalty appeal rejected when Martin Weir clearly put his hand on the ball inside the area after a challenge.

In the dying minutes Morgan ran at the City defence but could only toe poke his shot wide.

Tuohy was at a loss to explain the performance.

"Generally we had a real mixture of seasoned campaigners and youngsters, but some people were really not up for it," he said.

"I can't put my finger on why that is the case. The turning point was the disallowed goal and I think at 3-1 the game would have been over then.

"But we had problems in the air and clearing balls and we paid for it. We're lucky to have another chance."