Wilding's late strike earned City their first point of the season

Worcester City boss Richard Dryden hailed his side's performance after Monday's 1-1 draw with Basingstoke.

Craig Wilding's late equaliser cancelled out Tom Wilkinson's first-half strike and earned City their first Blue Square South point of the season.

"A few things were said at half-time but not many of them were negative," he told BBC Hereford & Worcester.

"We needed more desire to get into the box but the performance was probably the best since I have been here."

After disappointing showings in their opening two league games against Bromley and St Albans City, there had been signs of an improvement during Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Woking.

Keen to build on this, Richard Dryden gave debuts to the former Oxford United goalkeeper Ben Hinchcliffe and Alfie Carter, who has signed non-contract terms after a spell in the League of Wales.

City started brightly and so would have been disappointed to have fallen behind on 33 minutes when Tom Williamson's 25-yard drive went straight through the home side's defence, wrong-footing Hinchcliffe.

The home side stepped things up after the interval and were good value for their 87th-minute equaliser which came when Craig Wilding headed home from a corner.

Richard Dryden was especially impressed with the showing of left back Carter as the original plan was to ease the new signing into things gradually.

"I spoke to him after the game on Saturday and told him that he might have to play 90 minutes tonight or start and his jaw dropped," he said.

"He knows he isn't fit enough but he dug in there and did a fantastic job.

"They have got some players up front who can cause people no end of problems," he added.

My back was against the wall and so were those of the players but they stood up and were counted City boss Richard Dryden

Richard Dryden said his side have to take confidence from the manner in which they fought back to earn a draw and the point had come as a massive relief to everyone.

But he insists there will be no resting on laurels as the challenge now is to carry it on into Saturday's match at Weymouth.

"My back was against the wall and so were those of the players but they stood up and were counted," he said.

"Right from the start they did everything they could to get crosses in and shots off.

"I would love to see the crosses and corner count to see how much we dominated the game."

There will be coverage of Weymouth against Worcester City as part of Sport on Saturday from 1400 BST on BBC Hereford and Worcester.

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