Bradford Park Avenue 0, Worcester City 3

AVENUE remain rooted to the foot of the National League North table after a defeat to a Worcester City side who were below them just two games ago.

Veteran striker Lee Hughes was once again in the thick of the action.

The former West Brom and Oldham goal-scorer struck twice in midweek as City beat Alfreton 5-3 to pick up their first three-pointer this term.

Hughes could have had a hat-trick inside the first half hour at Horsfall as he hit the post and had a strike chalked off before opening the scoring in the 26th minute.

He had the ball in the net for a third time minutes before half-time but that, like his first, was ruled out for offside.

Frustrated Avenue boss Alex Meechan said: "I was disappointed with the result and disappointed with the desire of our players.

"I don't think we showed anywhere near enough conviction on the pitch to win that game and there were words at half-time. What was said will remain between me and the players but they were left in no doubt that they were well below what we expect.

"There are enough leaders in that team, plenty of players that can lead by example, and they just weren't doing it.

"I made one change by bringing Tom Davie on for Andy McWilliams and switching to a back three because I knew we needed more impetus going forward.

"I thought it had paid off for us because we had a good start to the second half – but we did ourselves again with a free-kick and then a free header.

"It comes down to desire and we didn't have that. We also didn't have the quality that a Lee Hughes gives you."

Hughes sprinted onto a through-ball in the seventh minute but his shot across Avenue keeper Joe Cracknell struck the base of the far post. He then finished superbly in the 20th minute, curling into the top corner but from an offside position.

He was not to be denied his goal and duly claimed it minutes later to give Worcester a lead before being denied again later in the half after deftly lobbing Cracknell.

Despite Avenue's positive start to the second half, the game went away from them during a four-minute spell inside the last 20 minutes.

Cieron Keane clipped a superb free-kick in off the underside of the bar and minutes later, Hughes tormented the home defence again before delivering a cross that picked out the unmarked Chekaine Steele and he planted a header past Cracknell.