MANAGER Carl Heeley described Worcester City’s stunning FA Cup victory over Coventry City as the proudest moment of his career.

Heeley, who played more than 500 times for the Blue and Whites, guided his team to a famous 2-1 victory at the Ricoh Arena and into tonight’s second round draw.

Victory is worth £18,000 in prize money to the Conference North side as well as £12,500 from television coverage and their share of the gate receipts from a 8,439 crowd.

It was also the first time 1987 cup winners Coventry have been beaten by non-league opponents since losing to Sutton United in 1989. Heeley, who became a father for the third time this week, said: “It’s the proudest day of my football career.

“After the week I’ve had with the birth of my third daughter, if I could have written the fairy tale that would have been the end today.

“I am enjoying the moment because they don’t come along very often in your football career and it’s a huge moment for everybody involved with the club.

“The club has a proud history and that’s another chapter in it and I think it’s up there with the greatest moments the club’s ever had.”

He added: “We’ve played teams from lower down the leagues before and they are tough games but the fact we’re in Conference North and Coventry are in League One doesn’t matter because it’s the FA Cup.

“I said before I guaranteed there would be shocks, I was just dreaming we would have one of those and it’s happened for us. Whatever the draw brings there will be a few clubs wary of Worcester City being their opponents.”

Despite having an extra man for more than half the match, after Coventry keeper Lee Burge was sent off, Heeley felt his side were worthy victors.

He said: “I’m not being disrespectful in any way to Coventry, we felt we could come and cause them problems and we did that.

“There are some good players in the side and, most of all, they are fit boys so I knew they would have the energy to stay the duration.

“We started the game well and it was important we didn’t get overawed by the occasion, certainly in the first 15 minutes.

“The keeper’s had a little moment of madness, which has helped us, but, that said, I thought Coventry did really well once they had 10 men and probably caused us more problems.”

The Worcester boss added: “The message has always been for there to be no regrets.

“It’s a long way to this stage of the competition so we wanted the players to do themselves justice and the club proud and they’ve done that. They deserve all the plaudits they get.”