MANAGER Karl Gormley admits his Worcester Raiders players “can’t seem to do anything wrong at the moment” after booking their place in the West Midlands League Division One Cup semi-finals with a 3-1 win at Droitwich Spa.

Ben Tilbury opened the scoring for Spa after being put through by Haydn Morris before Raiders hit back with three goals in a madcap first 25 minutes at Walshes Meadow.

Anthony Smith tucked the ball home from the edge of the box before Roland Krol struck twice, with his first coming from 25 yards.

The city side then held firm to complete a hat-trick of victories over Droitwich this season and register a seventh straight win in all competitions.

“It wasn’t our best performance of the season but the work-rate was great from the lads,” Gormley said.

“Once we got the third goal you don’t want to sit back but at half-time we told them not to do anything silly.

“We went back to a 4-5-1 formation and that seemed to work.

“They had a couple of chances but I thought we were in control for the whole game.

“We were the better team by far and it is obviously always nice to beat your local rivals and get through to a semi-final.”

Raiders who are second in the league have a weekend off before hosting Alcester in the last 16 of the Smedley Crooke Memorial Cup next Wednesday (7.45pm).

“They can’t seem to do anything wrong at the moment,” Gormley said.

“Obviously the league is our priority. Everyone knows that we need to go up this season but it would be nice to have a cup final to look forward to as well.”

Spa’s joint-boss Mark Owen felt the game was lost in the opening period, admitting Raiders “completed dominated us”, but was pleased with his side’s response after the break.

“We did a lot better in the second half and could have possibly got something out of it with the amount of chances we had,” Owen said.

“But saying that they were always dangerous on the counter attack.

“I told Chris (Cornes), their assistant manager, midway through the second half that whatever happens you have got the balance right.

“Their side have got the ability but also the strength of character.

“They are a good side at our level.

“We have come up short three times against them so there are no arguments from our point of view.

“Yes, we could have done better in certain aspects in all three games but at this stage we are behind them.

“It is just the finer details that we have got to improve on as we are not too far away.”

Droitwich are also not in action this weekend but will prepare for next Saturday’s WFA Saturday Junior Cup home semi-final against Redditch Borough (3pm).