Worcester City 1-1 Rugby Town
Midlands Football League Premier Division
Rob George reports from the Victoria Ground
A FRUSTRATING afternoon at the Victoria Ground saw City two drop vital points in the promotion race and hand the initiative to their rivals.
The 1-1 draw with resilient Rugby Town came on the day Bromsgrove Sporting and Coleshill dropped points above the Blue and Whites while Highgate United, who have two games in hand on City, closed to within a point after victory over Boldmere St Michaels.
John Snape’s weary warriors went into battle for the second time in 48 hours after Thursday’s 1-0 win over Westfields in their bid to close the 11 point gap to leaders Sporting.
The City chief made four changes from the Westfields win with Hamilton Chiwara, Yannick Gomes, Ben Robinson and Alex Tomkinson coming in for Scott Hall, Matt Birley, Nick Turton and Brad Birch.
His reshuffled looked to have worked as City began on the front foot with Tomkinson a real threat down the left and the winger’s cross found Dave Reynolds in the 12th minute who headed over.
City were rewarded for their early pressure with the lead after 22 minutes when they won possession in midfield and found the dangerous Tomkinson whose cross was met with a superb overhead kick from Reynolds to make it 1-0.
Rugby roared to life following the goal and Ruben Wiggins-Thomas had a chance to level the scores in the 33rd minute when he surged past Chiwara only to fire over.
City responded and had a golden chance for a second goal two minutes later when Reynolds got in down the left hand side and fired a cross along the six yard box. Gomes looked to have a tap in at the far post but missed the ball.
David Kolodynski brought the best out of City keeper Matt Gwynne before Rugby notched up a deserved equaliser in first half injury time.
The impressive Wiggins-Thomas was played in down the right and evaded a challenge from Mark Smith before squaring it to Stuart Hendrie who rolled it in to make it 1-1.
A stunned City emerged after the break on the back foot and Gwynne saved well early in the second half as the home side struggled to get back on top.
Further pressure from the visitors saw Gwynne the busier of the two keepers and the stopper saved well from a free kick by John Ruff after George Forsyth was penalised for a foul 20 yards out.
Sub Sam Belcher rattled the City crossbar with a thunderous effort which bounced down and somehow didn’t cross the line with a quarter of an hour remaining before Gwynne again saved well when a long ball forward found Kolodynksi in space.
City finished the stronger of the two sides though and a cross from the left saw Smith head over on 82 minutes before the move of the match almost secured all three points in the final minute of the 90.
Sub Mark Danks found Hayward just inside the penalty area on the right who stood up a perfect cross which was well met by Smith who headed wide with visiting keeper Niall Cooper rooted to the spot.
A frustrating afternoon ended on a sour note when skipper Hayward confronted a fan in the main stand as tensions spilled over. Hayward was eventually ushered away by club officials and team-mates.
Both the fan involved and Hayward are understood to want to resolve the matter amicably at the club’s next home game.
On the pitch, City must focus on Tuesday’s crucial clash with Bromsgrove Sporting as a defeat to their landlords could mark the beginning of the end for their promotion dreams.