WORCESTER City manager Carl Heeley believes a mentally draining season took its toll on his players as they went down 4-0 to Hednesford Town.
The Blue and Whites boss could do little as he watched his ten-men succumb to their second heaviest defeat of their Skrill Conference North campaign on Monday (April 21).
After a gruelling season, in which the thread-bare squad comfortably survived the threat of relegation, Heeley believes the games have eventually caught up with his side and once again highlighted the need for more fire-power.
“We’ve got nothing to play for,” he said. “It’s been a mentally draining season and we looked tired today (Monday), certainly in the last 20 minutes and looked like the break can’t come quick enough for us.
“If you look at individuals and take out Dan Nti and Ethan Moore, nobody else has scored enough goals and collectively the rest of the squad hasn’t scored enough goals and that’s been shining out.
“We set ourselves up to be difficult to beat because we felt that would get us over the line and it has done, but the bottom line is we can’t afford to have the quality and both ends of the pitch so we have to make do and get where we are.”
Heeley did, however, pay tribute to his side’s achievement at retaining their Skrill North status, which looked a very difficult task at the back end of last year.
“I’m pleased we haven’t got relegated,” he added. “Because at the end of 2013 you’d have struggled to find anybody supporting Worcester City who would have predicted what’s happened so overall I’m delighted we’ve achieved our goal.”