ASSISTANT manager Ashley Vincent hopes Worcester City won a few hearts and minds as well as a cup final place on Tuesday.

City trumped landlords Bromsgrove Sporting 3-2 thanks to two coolly-taken goals from James Baldwin who then laid on what proved to be a crucial third for Kyonn Evans before half-time.

Ex-Worcester midfielder Nathan Hayward was joined by leading marksman Richard Gregory and Charlie Dowd in Sporting’s triple half-time change that turned the tide dramatically.

Gregory eventually bundled in with 10 minutes to go having spurned a number of chances with Michael McGrath closing the gap to one within 30 seconds.

There were some scares in a frantic finale but Vincent was keen not to “take away from our first-half performance which I thought was fantastic” as City defied their recent tricky run.

“Bromsgrove have a really good, strong side. They showed that last season in our league and are right up there in the division above,” said Vincent.

“For the manager to make three substitutions and bring on his so-called big players at half-time he obviously did not like what he saw in the first half and wanted to get them back in the game.

“Yes, we hung in there. Our keeper made a good save and we put our bodies on the line to block shots but that’s part of football.

“We played a top side and I would push to say we deserved to beat them.

“We got the goals we wanted in the first half and I thought Balders (Baldwin) was fantastic.

“They got two goals and we were disappointed with one of them. With the way they came, Bromsgrove would have felt they could get an equaliser from that point but didn’t.

“Anyone coming to this game other than us as staff and players probably expected us to get beaten heavily but it didn’t happen and we are in the final.

“We are delighted with that and maybe one or two people have gone away thinking they are wrong, that the wheels haven’t fallen off and that Westfields (a 6-1 home defeat in the league) was one bad performance.

“I try to measure games on their individual merits. I would accept the Westfields game was poor but felt that was a one off.

“I think everyone went a little bit overboard in a way they hadn’t when we had been unbeaten for 15 games.

“No one in the group went overboard back then saying we had made it but after Westfields – which was a heavy defeat that we all found unacceptable – people thought the wheels had fallen off but they haven’t.”