WORCESTER City boss John Barton has urged his side to prove their FA Cup battling display against Third Division Rushden & Diamonds was not a one-off performance and to reproduce it in the league.

Barton's brave side overcame injury and a poor run of recent displays to almost earn a memorable draw in front of a near three and a half thousand strong crowd at St George's Lane.

Only a flash of brilliance from a second-half Richie Hanlon free-kick denied City a deserved replay at Nene Park as they pushed Brian Talbot's side to the wire.

"It was difficult to believe that the side out there on Saturday was the same as the ones responsible for recent poor performances," said Barton.

"Everybody on the pitch made contributions. I don't think we deserved to win because we didn't have enough going forward, which is what we feared, but I thought 0-0 was written all over it.

"The game opened up a little bit in the last 10 minutes when we were chasing the game, but I think a draw would have been a fair result. Inevitably you get one realistic chance and we didn't take ours."

But Barton admitted he now expected his team to perform like that in the Dr Martens Premier Division starting with Tamworth.

"Rushden were the form team on an 11 or 12 match unbeaten run so our players came out of the match with considerable praise," he said.

"But they have set a benchmark after that sort of performance and I will be expecting that every time. I thought Andy Ellis had his best game of the season by a long way as did Paul Carty apart from a moment of over excurberance when he gave the free-kick away from which Rushden scored, but he was excellent."

Barton also praised skipper Carl Heeley who made it third time lucky after missing out on two previous FA Cup first round appearances.

"Carl was outstanding and I know he was looking forward to it and certainly made the most of the opportunity.

"But the cup is over now for 12 months and we've had more than a few pats on the back from Saturday's game, but now we must concentrate on putting in some good performances in the league."

City chairman Dr Mike Sorensen also praised Barton's team and admitted it took a special goal to defeat them.

"It was a superb performance with 100 per cent commitment and on balance we deserved a draw," he said.

"It took a special goal that unfortunately often decide these matches, to make the difference."