WORCESTER City are looking to erase 61 years of hurt when they tackle Crawley Town in the final of the Dr Martens League Cup.

You have to go back to 1939-40, in the early days of the Second World War, to find the only previous occasion that City have won the Southern League Cup.

But now John Barton's side have a golden opportunity to fill that space in the St George's Lane Trophy cabinet, starting with the first leg at home tomorrow.

The second leg is at Crawley's Broadfield Stadium next Thursday (April 26).

Considering City are in their 52nd season of Southern League membership, their record in the competition is not a great one, with only two other appearances in the final besides their one triumph.

Few people generally get excited about the competition, but excitement tends to build up the further clubs get.

For Worcester that's certainly been the case, with excitement reaching a crescendo after their thrilling 5-3 semi-final victory over Newport County last week.

If they win, it will be the first competition they've won outside of county cups since the Southern League title back in 1978-79.

Way back in 1939-40, the outbreak of hostilities forced the league and cup programme to be severely curtailed, and only 13 teams competed.

City, in only their second season in the Southern League, battled their way past teams such as Kidderminster Harriers and Hereford United and then saw off Chelmsford City in a two-legged final, winning 3-1 at St George's Lane and 4-2 away.

It was 1945-46 before the competition was staged again, with only 12 teams this time who were divided into two groups of six.

City topped their group to earn the right to play Chelmsford again in the final but this time the Essex side gained revenge, following a 3-3 draw with a convincing 6-1 win.

Their only other final appearance to date came in 1959-60, the season after their famous FA Cup triumph over Liverpool.

Competition was much tougher with 44 teams taking part, but City reached the final only to lose both legs 2-1 to Chelmsford once again.

At least they've got different opponents this time, and City will be confident having netted 15 goals en route to the final in victories over Blakenall, Atherstone, Bilston and Newport, while they also held their nerve to win a penalty shoot-out at Tamworth in round two.

Carl Heeley is City's unlikely leading scorer in the competition with four, followed by top scorer Mark Owen with three.

Expect a very tight contest over the two legs, with Crawley's excellent home record up against City's fine results on their travels - only title-chasing Burton can match their tally of 10 away league wins.

However, Crawley, in their first ever final, may fancy their chances at St George's Lane bearing in mind City's indifferent home record, although in contrast the West Sussex side are not good travellers.

While City are heavily reliant on Owen for goals, Crawley boast two dangerous strikers in Mark Hynes and Dean Wordsworth, who have 18 and 17 goals respectively this season.

But their recent form hasn't been overly impressive, and City won 2-0 in the league meeting at St George's Lane back in February despite being down to the bare bones.

If City fire as they have been in recent weeks they can go on and lift the trophy, but anything less and they could be in for a nasty surprise.