NOVEMBER is probably a month Worcester City will be glad to see the back of.

A power struggle off the pitch and just one win in five games on it represents a turbulent few weeks at St George’s Lane.

With the exception of the victory at Hampton and Richmond and manager Richard Dryden signing his new contract, there has been precious little for City fans to cheer about.

The 647 who braved the bitterly cold conditions on Saturday were certainly given more to get their teeth into than the home fixtures against AFC Wimbledon or Welling but their team still came up short.

Ultimately, it was a piece of brilliance from Chelmsford’s Ollie Berquez 10 minutes before half-time that proved decisive to end the Essex side’s 38-year winless streak at the Lane.

The former Dagenham and Redbridge man was the beneficiary of a neat one-two on the edge of City’s penalty area from which he seamlessly sauntered through several challenges before rolling the ball past the advancing Danny McDonnell.

The goal was slightly harsh on Dryden’s side who, up until then, had more than matched their lofty opponents and might have had at least one goal to show for their efforts.

Dave Bampton’s cheeky back-heel from Craig Wilding’s second-minute knock down was gathered by keeper Danny Gay and the City skipper just failed to get on the end of an excellent Shabir Khan cross moments later.

As the game progressed, Chelmsford threatened to put the game beyond Worcester although Matt Dinsmore, a 57th-minute replacement for Jon Richardson, did have a good chance to equalise deep into injury-time.

However, his effort was blocked following an untimely defensive slip-up.

League leaders Chelmsford were forced into reshuffle after striker Jon Keeling was injured in the warm-up and replaced by Ricky Holmes.

Holmes had his side’s first meaningful effort on goal when he headed Justin Miller’s cross off target with McDonnell a bystander.

Defensively, City looked more watertight than in recent games, the result of a 3-5-2 system employed for the first time by Dryden with former Halesowen man Tom Kemp joining Richardson and Ollie Barnes at the back.

The hosts were given a brief scare midway through the first-half when Bampton went down off the ball clutching his knee but thankfully there was no repeat of his early-season injury problems.

Both sides had penalty appeals turned down as half-time appr-oached, the most vociferous coming after Marco Adaggio’s strike was closed down by visiting skipper Andy Duncan.

Bertie Brayley should have doubled the visitors’ advantage three minutes after Berquez had broken the deadlock but he blazed a volley over from close-range following poor City marking.

Bampton had the ball in the back of the net seconds before the interval but he was clearly offside following Wilding's through-ball.

The woodwork came to the hosts’ escue eight minutes into the second-half as Brayley’s tidy chip evaded a back-tracking McDonnell and pinged off the bar.

McDonnell then produced a fine reaction parry to deny Holmes despite being wrong-footed and diving in the opposite direction.

Dinsmore’s introduction saw City revert to 4-4-2 and Jamie Price was thrown into the mix for Michael McGrath 20 minutes from time.

Eight minutes later City had a fine opportunity to level as Wilding found himself with space on the edge of the penalty area but scuffed his effort at Gay.

Within five minutes the skipper was replaced by Matt Dodd and taken out of the verbal firing line he had been subjected to by an element of the home support.

City left themselves vulnerable to the counter-attack as time ticked down yet, with seconds left, Dinsmore broke free 10 yards out but had his shot blocked.