Welling 1 Worcester City 3

MARK Shepherd banished Worcester City's blues with a timely hat-trick to see them to a 3-1 win at Welling United.

Shepherd's treble -- his first for the club and the fifth by a City player this season -- gave them only their second away success of the campaign in the Dr Martens League Premier Division.

But the overall performance was a vast improvement on recent weeks, and manager John Barton was delighted with how the team responded to the tame surrender of their Dr Martens Cup crown at Bedworth.

He said afterwards: "We haven't been able to pick a side until today, and we changed the system and a few personnel.

"The response was good. We are not shouting from the rooftops about the win because it has to be deeper and more sustained than it was today, but it was a start.

"There were contributions from all over the pitch and I am happy with the overall contributions from all the players."

Barton was also pleased for his hat-trick hero, saying: "Any hat-trick is a good one, and he has done well.

"Mark has been disappointed with his form, as I have been, but he has always worked very hard and will always give a totally committed performance. He is always with the job but that alone isn't good enough to be convincing.

"Hopefully that will give him some confidence and belief."

Barton responded to the Bedworth deb-acle by reverting to a four-man defence, dropping Martin Weir and Nathan Jukes and moving Paul Carty to left-back, which proved an inspired move as he was a constant threat.

Young Dwain McFarlane came in on the right flank, was always lively and was unlucky not to open his City goals account.

Shepherd, meanwhile, profited from more good work from on-loan strike partner Stewart Hadley.

McFarlane had already hit the bar in a good City start before, on 19 minutes, Darren Bullock's clever free-kick played Carty in down the side of the defensive wall. His cross caused confusion and Shepherd's header looked to have been blocked on the line by home striker Gary Abbott, but an alert assistant referee signalled that the ball had gone in.

Welling responded strongly and on 35 minutes City failed to deal with a low right-wing cross and Mike Rutherford swept the ball home from close range.

But deep into first-half stoppage time City had a rare stroke of luck when defender Mark Hone's attempted clearance struck Hadley and rebounded into the path of Shepherd, who easily beat advancing 'keeper Glen Knight.

Solid defending ensured Welling were kept at bay after the break, their only scare coming when on-loan Mark Blount headed an Abbott effort off the line.

McFarlane was also denied on the line by Russell Edwards' clearance as Knight lay dazed after a collision with Hadley. The home 'keeper battled on but came off in the closing minutes with Abbott taking over his jersey as referee Mr G. Hoare played an incredible 13 minutes of injury-time.

But Knight had no chance in the 79th minute when Leon Jackson sent Shepherd away to complete his hat-trick with a deflected shot and give City their third win at Welling in three attempts.