MARCO Adaggio ensured Worcester City’s coach ride back from Havant and Waterlooville was much more pleasurable than their journey down.

The former Shrewsbury Town striker fired home a spectacular bicycle kick four minutes after the break, adding to a comical Havant own goal five minutes before the interval, to extend City’s superb record on the road.

Richard Dryden’s men remain unbeaten away from St George’s Lane this season and they have not lost for seven Blue Square South matches, including three consecutive victories.

However, they had to do it the hard way in Hampshire after having their preparations ruined by a mixture of traffic congestion and bad luck.

Two separate accidents meant the team bus had to take a detour, while on-loan Kidderminster Harriers midfielder Michael McGrath ran out of petrol trying to negotiate one of the hold-ups and needed assistant manager Carl Heeley, also travelling by car, to come to his rescue.

On top of all that, midfield lynchpin Dave Bampton came down with a virus just hours before kick-off and had to be replaced by a dogged Gary Walker.

The team talk took place on the bus and City eventually arrived at Westleigh Park with less than a hour to spare.

Yet, if Dryden’s men were feeling the effects of a less than ideal few hours on the road, they didn’t show it on the pitch.

City grew in stature as the game progressed and, once they had their two-goal cushion, defended resolutely to run out deserved winners.

Havant, on the other hand, looked every bit a side that had only won once on home soil all season.

They were devoid of confidence and wasted the majority of what little they created.

Keeper Danny McDonnell was called into action twice in the second-half but Havant, one of the pre-season title favourites, rarely troubled Worcester and most of their fans had walked out in disgust by the close — this was a far cry from their Anfield heroics against Liverpool in last season’s FA Cup.

Barely five minutes had passed when Ian Simpemba headed wide and Luke Nightingale fired off target, while Paul Booth was just as woeful as he drove past McDonnell’s goal from a tight angle.

City’s accuracy wasn’t much better — Walker’s wayward acrobatics was the closest effort in the opening stages — and it was always going to take something out of the ordinary to break the deadlock.

That duly arrived in bizarre fashion on 40 minutes. Jamie Price whipped in a dangerous corner but keeper Kevin Scriven, attempting to punch clear, succeeded only in pushing the ball against Simpemba and it fell almost apologetically over the line.

The second-half was a different story.

Worcester got at their opponents from the off and had doubled their advantage inside four minutes.

Price’s long throw was flicked on and Adaggio, with his back to goal, sent an unstoppable overhead kick beyond Scriven into the far bottom corner. Cue the now customary back-flip celebration.

Within seconds, Rob Davies had fired an effort inches wide from 25 yards and City had Havant rocking.

Nothing was going right for the hosts and they had claims for a handball against Shabir Khan, returning from injury, while charging down Booth’s strike waved away by referee Lee Collins just past the hour.

It wasn’t until the 69th-minute when Shaun Gale’s side registered their first serious shot on target, Booth heading Craig Watkins’ right-wing cross into the grateful arms of the diving McDonnell.

Worcester, though, stuck to their task in defence and gobbled up just about everything which came their way. The visitors also sensed a third goal on the break and Davies curled a 20-yard free-kick agonisingly wide 11 minutes from time.

Havant sub Dan Royce brought another good low save out of McDonnell two minutes later but the Hampshire side could have few complaints with the final result.