SPEAK to just about anybody connected with Worcester City and they will say the team is too good to go down.

Whether it be the manager, players or directors, the common consensus is City have too much quality within their ranks to be one of the three worst sides in Blue Square South come next April.

Despite a low budget, boss Richard Dryden and assistant Carl Heeley have assembled what is generally perceived to be a stronger squad than last season.

Yet, following Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Dorchester, City only have goal difference separating them from the drop-zone, and second-bottom Lewes have a game in hand.

The statistics don’t lie. With more than a third of the season gone, like it or not, the team is firmly en-trenched in a relegation battle.

Teams might not go down in November but they can pave the way for a post-Christmas struggle and City have done that.

Striker Rob Elvins is at a loss to explain their predicament but believes Dryden’s team can start to climb the table.

He said: “With the players we have I can’t understand why we are down in the position we are in. A good season would be to stay up, push on and try and get in the play-offs.

“It may seem like a long shot but with the squad we’ve got it’s not impossible.”

Not impossible. Extremely unlikely, but not impossible.

I have been a critic of Elvins this season but City are a much better team when he plays.

After all, they lost the three matches for which he was suspended, hot on the heels of a three-game unbeaten run in the league when he was ever-present.

On his return last Saturday they picked up a point in Dorset and, but for the intervention of a post, would have won.

The 23-year-old, who puts that sequence of events down to coincidence, has only scored three league goals this season and by his own admission expects a better ratio.

But he feels it is other aspects of his game that make him an important cog in Dryden’s machine.

Elvins said: “Having had the three games out with the suspension, it’s just good to be back playing again.

“I would have wanted a few more goals but I think what I give to the team is a different presence and I’d rather set a lot more goals up than score to be honest.

“When I was younger I used to be the one that scored the goals but as I’ve progressed in my career it’s gone more the way of a target-man and everyone else getting the goals.

“If you don’t work hard for the team then it’s pointless being on the pitch.”

City do not play again in the league until Bishop’s Stortford visit the Lane on Saturday, November 28.

They believe they are too good to get relegated — now they have to go and prove it.