WORCESTER City will look to use Wednesday night's Wiseman Lighting Floodlit Cup celebrations to push them forward in their bid to win the Hellenic League Premier title when they head to Brimscombe & Thrupp (Saturday, March 23 - 3pm kick-off).
City are into their final 10 games of the 2023/24 league campaign and remain big favourites to win the title, but will be wary of a 'cup comedown' following their first trophy in five years on Wednesday night at Roman Glass St George.
It was an emotional evening for players, fans and coaching staff as they earned their first of four potential trophies in what could turn out to be an incredible season. Manager Chris Cornes was as joyous post-match as he has been in the last eight months, but was keen to insist that Wednesday needs to now be pushed to one side.
"The attention turns to winning Saturday," he said. "We have 10 games left in the league, we need 16/17 points to win it.
"But we will not look any further than Saturday. Whatever happens in that game, we will deal with that and then we go again into mid-week and the Vase next weekend.
"We are not looking any further ahead, I am not even thinking about the Vase. The plan moves to Brimscombe and we will not get ahead of ourselves. We haven't looked past the next fixture all season and we won't start now.
"We just need to win games and keep plodding along."
City's run of matches between now and the end of the season is condensed, to say the least. They have 12 games to play in the space of a month and Cornes' squad will be pushed to the limit.
But Saturday should at least see the return of three players who were not available on Wednesday.
Cornes suggested both Dylan Hart (back) and Jamie Insall (foot) could have been used if necessary in the cup final win at Roman Glass St George, but the decision was made to give them some extra rest in the run-up to Saturday's league game, which was always the priority.
Lorcan Sheehan also missed out in mid-week but is expected to be back involved for the trip to South Gloucestershire.
One player that has been away for the past couple of matches is midfielder Connor Gater, who has been a mainstay in the middle of the park for City this season. Cornes explained his absence:
"Connor is fine (not injured). He was not available on Wednesday. He has a lot of businesses and things are very chaotic for him at the moment.
"We are going to talk through his involvement as we go along the next few weeks but he is a valuable member of the squad and is brilliant in the dressing room, but football plays second fiddle to life and it has come at him fast over the last couple of months.
"He has had a bit of a knock and that's football."
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