WORCESTER City’s academy team are aiming to put a luckless few weeks behind them and strive for success in Midland Combination Division Two.

The St George’s Lane youngsters enjoyed a blistering start to the season but have since suffered a goalkeeping injury crisis and crashed out of the FA Youth Cup.

Keeper Josh Wheeler sustained a broken leg in training and spent eight weeks on the sidelines and Tom Harding then suffered a broken arm against Hartpury College and is expected to be out for another six weeks.

That meant striker Dan Tonks had to deputise in the 5-2 FA Cup first qualifying round victory over Highgate United but he has since gone down with glandular fever.

Custodian Chris Grindley was drafted in for the 4-3 second qualifying round defeat against Stourbridge but Wheeler is expected to return for today’s Midland Combination trip to Droitwich Spa reserves.

Youth development officer Ray Woods said: “We had a fantastic start to the season with three wins on the trot and scored a lot of goals — we won 4-0, 4-1 and 7-2.

“Since then it’s slipped a little bit and we have had quite a few injuries. A lot of things have gone wrong that we didn’t expect.”

Luke Williams, Ben Stanley and Jack Connolly were on target as the academy, which has produced the likes of City first-team regular Matt Dinsmore, were beaten by Stourbridge in a repeat of the defeat at the same stage of the competition last season.

Woods said: “It was very disappointing. We missed enough chances to win six games let alone one and we conceded four goals which is not acceptable at home.

“A good crowd came to watch us, for which we are grateful, and we let them down.

“If we had beaten Stourbridge 15-6 it wouldn’t have been unfair but unfortunately they are the team that’s going through into the next round.

“We can’t seem to push on in the FA Cup, there’s something holding us back.

“Being out of the cup we can now concentrate on the league.”

City have won two out of three games in the English Colleges League Premier Division to date and currently sit fifth in Midland Combination Division Two with two victories from five games and are six points behind unbeaten leaders Shirley Town.

Woods, whose assistant is former City striker Mark Owen, added: “When we have got our full side out there are not going to be many teams better than us at this level.

“We have still got to strive to be better but we are not that far away.”

Striker Dan Polan, midfielder Shane McGarrity and right winger Stanley are all due to go for England College trials next month.