Worcester City 1-1 Bognor Regis

Dryden praised his players' spirit in what has been a difficult week

Worcester City's hopes of marking their only home game in December with a win were undone by a second-half Bognor Regis comeback.

Ollie Barnes gave City a half-time lead but Danny Smith earned Bognor a point with an equaliser 19 minutes from time.

City manager Richard Dryden told BBC Hereford and Worcester the state of the pitch had been a factor.

"We dominated the game for long periods and I think it was a tale of two sandy goalmouths," he said.

"The one hasn't helped us, and then everybody was up celebrating Marco's [Adaggio] goal until it got stuck in the sand."

City went into the match looking for a morale-boosting win after a week in which the club's chairman Anthony Hampson went public about the state of their finances.

Given that he had gone on record saying that they needed a bumper crowd as this was the only way the club could guarantee the players would be paid, they would have been disappointed with the attendance of 588 - their second-lowest home crowd of the season.

Dryden said the players had done particularly well after what had been a terrible period for everyone connected with City.

"It has been a horrible week at the club for us and the players, and sometime the performance outweighs the result," he said.

"I was desperate to get three points as that would have put us eighth or ninth, but it hasn't so we are still in the same place.

"It is two points dropped, but you can't knock the work rate and the lads had a right go," he added.

Barnes' free kick in first-half stoppage time put City in front, but the visitors hit back to take a point when Smith levelled 19 minutes from time.

Nobody knows where they stand from one day to the next at the moment, so it's not great

Richard Dryden

While Dryden has praised Hampson for his honesty with the players over the club's perilous financial position, he admitted there was every prospect of losing players to other clubs.

Craig Wilding has already been attracting interest from elsewhere, but the club captain has pledged his future to City.

Dryden said the uncertainty was proving a strain for everyone involved.

"Nobody knows where they stand from one day to the next at the moment, so it's not great," he said.

"It's going to change from day to day by the looks of it."