WORCESTER City headed off to Liverpool for their belated Christmas party on Saturday to celebrate their ill-gotten gains from Southport with both St George's Lane chief Richard Dryden and his opposite number Peter Davenport both with the same opinion - the hosts were the better side.

The only thing was though, it was City who claimed all three points after on-loan Kidderminster Harriers defender Jonathan Munday prodded home the only goal of the game 16 minutes from time.

"We played them off the park," rued former Manchester United star Davenport.

While Dryden admitted: "They were the better side."

Hard to disagree, but now that the dust has settled, the record books will show Southport 0, Worcester City 1 -no-one will care about who was the better side.

Dryden talked before Saturday's match about being able to use the Southport game to gauge how far his side has come since he took up the reins in December.

The gulf in class between the two sides was blatant, but so was the heart, desire, commitment and resolve and City showed that in abundance.

Battered from pillar to post in the first 45 minutes, a depleted City were still in the game and now the rest of the league must sit up and take notice - the St George's Lane club are genuine contenders for the play-offs.

Southport boasted a proud record before the weekend, no-one had come to Haig Avenue and beaten them in Blue Square North - that was until City completed a league double over the Merseysiders.

"My lads showed great commitment and heart and we kept another good clean sheet," Dryden said.

"When you are away from home against a good side, you gauge yourself by being able to keep a clean sheet and we have done that.

"We managed to keep a good clean sheet at Harrogate too and we won both games 1-0. You don't get anywhere if you concede a lot of goals.

"We had a bit of a two-game blip over Christmas when we lost to Redditch and Telford, but we have got good players in the side.

"When you are a part-time side you worry about what the players are doing outside football as you only see them two or three times a week."

Dryden is also pleased with the attitude that his players have shown towards him in the short time he has been in charge at the Lane.

That was summed up when they cancelled their Christmas party.

"When I arrived at Worcester City, they said gaffer, we want to cancel our Christmas party and have it at a later date'.

"I had completely forgotten about it, but we went out in Liverpool after the Southport game. You worry about that a little bit because when I was a player you looked forward to nights out."

Southport started the match moving the ball around nicely and got behind the City defence at will, but thankfully for the visitors, they could not find a way through. "The movement of their front two is great and we struggled to cope for the first 15 minutes then we changed it around," Dryden added.