WORCESTER City’s league troubles continued following a 2-0 reverse to fellow strugglers Oxford City at Aggborough on Sunday (December 8).
A first half own goal from Matt Regan and a Marvin Robinson header lifted the visitors five points ahead of their Skrill Conference North rivals and left City hovering above the relegation zone on goal difference.
After their scintillating performance in the midweek win over AFC Telford Carl Heeley named an unchanged line up, but their inconsistent form struck again as his side slipped to their ninth league defeat of the season.
In a scrappy opening Richard Taundry’s half volley was deflected wide before an Andy Ballard long throw found Tom Winters but his effort hit the side netting when well placed.
After 16 minutes it was the visitors who got their noses in front in fortuitous circumstances when Winters’ curling effort was inadvertently headed past Jose Veiga by Regan.
It should have been 2-0 moments later but Jose Veiga twice denied Winters with fine saves before Ellis Deeney cleared a Darren Pond effort off the line in a frantic spell.
But Oxford did double their advantage after 21 minutes when Michael Pook’s deep cross was missed by Veiga, under substantial pressure, the powerful Marvin Robinson was able to head into an empty net.
The visitors were high in confidence and Kayden Jackson’s dangerous cross was put narrowly over his crossbar by Graham Hutchison before Ballard somehow missed the ball altogether from four yards out from the resulting corner.
Carl Heeley made a double substitute at half-time to try and inject some much needed creativity into the game with Niall Thompson and Steven Leslie coming on for Dominic Dell and Aaron Williams.
Veiga came to the hosts rescue again shortly after the restart when Winters burst through but the stopper expertly denied him to keep his side in the game.
After an hour captain Hutchison had to be replaced by Ebby Nelson-Addy following a nasty looking challenge by Jackson with Deeney slotting back into centre half and taking the armband.
Declan Benjamin had the opportunity to seal the game with 15 minutes remaining but the substitute hit his effort straight into the arms of the diving Veiga.
Niall Thompson’s front post drive was comfortably turned around by Mark Scott as Worcester ended the game with some fight, but it wasn’t to be as their five game unbeaten run came to an end.
Manager Heeley said: “I’m not going to flower over it, I’m very disappointed in our performance today.
“I think we’ve seen the good and the bad of Worcester City in the space of four or five days because as good as we have been the past few weeks, we were as bad today.
“We conceded two sloppy goals and gave ourselves a mountain to climb and if I’m totally honest 2-0 probably flattered us a little bit today because we were second best throughout.”
Jonny Bonell reporting from Aggborough
Attendance: 442
