CARL Heeley says the pressure is off his Worcester City team as they bid to finish the season on a high.

Tuesday’s 1-1 draw against Brackley Town lifted the Blue and Whites to ninth in Conference North, their best position for more than three months.

But, with the play-offs out of reach, City, who host already-relegated Hyde at Aggborough tomorrow (3pm), can take the shackles off knowing they are set for their best points total since the 2011-12.

Worcester manager Heeley said: “We haven’t got any pressure on us.

“That’s nice to try to win as many points as we possibly can until the end of the season and see where that takes us.

“It’s about the endeavour, application and work-rate and anybody who saw the Lowestoft and Brackley games would have seen they players are certainly not letting the season drift out, they are working incredibly hard for each other.”

City dominated the majority of the 1-1 draw against struggling Brackley, in which Mike Symons’ injury-time equaliser, his ninth goal of the season, cancelled out Greg Kaziboni’s first-half stunner.

Heeley was pleased with his side’s showing and their attitude to keep going until the end against Brackley and wants more of the same against cellar-dwellars Hyde, even though he admits the heat is off them as well.

He said: “They are playing with that freedom now and I think they were a decent side when we played them, just defensively they’ve been a little bit weak at times.

“But after the first 20 minutes from Tuesday, we’ve got to take that into the Hyde game and we’ve got to make them defend like we made Brackley defend.”

He continued: “You are not going to get the same sort of passing performances at this stage of the season that you get at the beginning, just because of the pitches.

“You have to adapt your game and that’s something that I think we’ve done reasonably well.”

Utility player Aaron Brown could come back into the mix after being unavailable in midweek due to a prior commitment, while midfielder Dean Waldron is in contention again following a hamstring injury.

Keeper Nathan Vaughan should also be fit after sustaining a knock on his arm in Tuesday’s draw.

n From next season, the Football Conference will be renamed as the National League.

This means Worcester City will be playing in Vanarama National League North.