Saturday, August 19, 2000

IAN Cottrill is unlikely to forget the first game of the 2000/01 season in a hurry.

Worcester City's long-serving midfielder began Saturday's Dr Martens League Premier Division opener at Tamworth by scoring a superbly-taken goal.

And he ended it wearing the goalkeeper's jersey after Danny McDonnell had been sent off.

But despite immediately letting in a penalty, Cottrill was not troubled again as City held on for an unexpected, but well-merited, 2-1 victory.

Cottrill, whose only previous experience of keeping goal was in a friendly against Crewe last season, said: "I had a fair bit of kicking to do but I didn't really have a genuine save to make.

"I thought we were tremendous. It was a good all-round performance by the team -- up until the sending-off there was only one team in it. We could quite easily have gone three or four goals up.

"I was delighted with my goal -- the way the team is moulded at the moment, I am supposed to be sitting in and holding, which allows Ian Reed, Mike Wyatt and Paul Carty to push forward."

And manager John Barton was equally delighted with the display.

He said: "I thought we deserved the result. There were a few problems picked up on the way but you have to deal with them.

"We looked sharp and took advantage of what I thought was a lethargic Tamworth performance.

"We put ourselves in the driving seat but 2-0 can be the worst lead in the world, especially at half-time.

"I was disappointed with their goal -- I was level with the situation and he looked a couple of yards offside, so there should have been no need for the confrontation that happened between Gary Smith and Danny.

"But we did a great job in protecting Ian. They put in some great blocks on the edge of the area.

"We left Mark Owen up front, put an extra central defender on and played a tight three in midfield to force them into wide positions. I thought we coped with it very well."

Tamworth attacked from the start and City were perhaps fortunate early on when McDonnell appeared to bring down former City striker Mark Hallam, only for referee Barston to decide that the striker had dived and show him the yellow card.

But after weathering the storm City, mainly through the outstanding Paul Carty and Cottrill, began to get a grip in midfield and put pressure on a creaky Tamworth defence.

It paid off on 14 minutes when Steve Lutz stole in at the near post to head home Mike Wyatt's perfectly-flighted corner.

Three minutes later Mark Owen knocked the ball into the area and Cottrill flicked the ball up in the air to wrong-foot a defender, and advanced to volley the ball into the net from close range.

City oozed confidence after that and could have put the game out of reach before half-time, with Owen, twice, and winger Reed going within inches of stretching City's lead.

At the other end, McDonnell had to be alert on a couple of occasions but solid def-ending kept free-scoring Tamworth quiet.

But on 72 minutes Tamworth substitute Smith charged clear despite appeals for offside. McDonnell raced out and upended the former City man in full flight.

McDonnell came off much the worse in the collision and needed six minutes of treatment before being stretchered off, accompanied by a red card from Mr Barston which he could have few complaints over.

Cottrill took over in goal and was unlucky not to keep out Hallam's spot-kick which squeezed under his body.

He ended up keeping goal for 25 minutes, as an earlier lengthy stoppage which saw Tamworth's Darren Grocutt stretchered off meant there were 13 minutes of injury time.

But City's defence, in particular Carl Heeley and Mark Tucker, did a superb job in protecting Cottrill in the closing minutes and Tamworth were rarely able to get close enough to get in a shot on goal.

His only real escape was when Hallam's effort was cleared off the line by Nathan Jukes.