IF Worcester City manager Richard Dryden could write the formula of how to start a game of football, hopefully he had his pen in hand at Bromley.

For the past few games the St George’s Lane outfit have struggled in the opening stages of matches, yet in Kent they surpassed all expectations.

Dismal at home to Hayes and Yeading United, slightly better down in Weston-super-Mare and disappointing when Bath City raided the Lane.

But somehow at Bromley they got off to the start that Dryden had been craving.

Twenty-one seconds were on the clock when Marco Adaggio fired City into the lead from close-range.

Only four minutes had elapsed when under-fire skipper Craig Wilding left Bromley keeper Gareth Williams rooted to the spot as his swerving 20-yard strike nestled into the far corner of the net.

Suddenly, City looked like a side that knew what they were doing from the start. Bromley never really recovered from that double blow.

The key now for City is to ensure that this was not just a one-off.

Dryden has said far too many times for his liking already this season that he wants a response from his players after disappointing displays.

While he got that response at Hayes Lane on Saturday, the last thing he wants to be saying after the Basingstoke match tomorrow night is, “we need a positive response from this game”.

With a small squad, City know that if they are to do anything this season they are going to need to get as many points on the board early on before the wear and tear of a long campaign takes hold.

To make the play-offs, they are going to have to try and get their noses in front of the rest of the pack and there is the quality in this City squad to do that.

But they are going to pick up injuries and inevitably there will be suspensions — Wilding begins a three-match ban on Saturday, while Jamie Price is doing his best for an early-season break after needlessly picking up his fourth booking of the campaign for kicking the ball away.

Dryden will have his targets for the season ahead, undoubtedly like most teams at the start of a new campaign it is the play-offs, but the City chief will not be looking past Basingstoke tomorrow.

Saturday’s professional performance at Bromley has gone, the victory was enjoyable, the performance good and the winless run was ended. And that was the main priority — putting that disappointing sequence of results behind them.

Dryden made several personnel changes to the side that crashed to Bath on Monday.

Wilding was brought in from the wing to replace Mark Owen in attack, fit-again Matt Dodd was back on the right flank and ex-Hereford United midfielder Jordan Fitzpatrick made his full debut for the St George’s Lane side. There was a nice blend and balance to the City line-up and, after two weeks of heavy criticism, Wilding’s strength of character shone as he put through Dodd to send over a cross for Adaggio to net his fourth goal of the season.

And if his pass to the former Sutton Coldfield Town youngster was inch-perfect, his fourth-minute strike was sublime.

Jon Richardson played the ball over the top of the Bromley midfield to Adaggio and he held the ball up well to pass back to his captain who did the rest.

Wilding could have been forgiven if he had pointed to his captain’s armband following that goal but there was no Nasser Hussain-style celebrations here from the former Chesterfield man.

City know they could have taken a four-goal lead into the break with the diminutive Matt Dinsmore spurning two golden opportunities to get on the scoresheet, while Adaggio forced a fine save from Williams just before the interval.

Bromley did cause City several problems but they just couldn’t force the ball into the net.

Danny Hockton rattled the frame of the goal twice but, when they got their shots on target, they failed to trouble Danny McDonnell.

The second-half faded into nothing as a tiring City looked to kill the game and secure a confidence-boosting three points.

The job now is to make sure September starts how August ended.