SHROPSHIRE side Market Drayton Town will be the first visitors to Claines Lane this season as Worcester City look to bounce back from their FA Cup loss at neighbours Malvern Town.
The Blue and Whites kick off their Midland Premier Division campaign for 2022/23 at 3pm today
Meanwhile the buoyant Hillsiders travel to Hereford Pegasus today for what will be the third game of their Hellenic League Premier Division campaign.
An opening day 2-2 draw with Westfields at the HDAnywhere Stadium was followed by a 3-1 win at Tuffley Rovers on Tuesday (August 9).
The Hillsiders will face another local FA Cup derby in the preliminary round on August 20 after being drawn to host Worcester Raiders who beat Daventry 4-2 on Wednesday (August 10).
Two first-half goals for Town from Jack Horrell and Ben Hayes were enough for Malvern to see off City in a local derby played in front of nearly 900 spectators.
City started the stronger of the two sides with great chances for both Demetri Brown and Sean Brain, who both fired wide within the first five minutes.
But the hosts’ quickfire double was launched on 23 minutes when Horrell lashed home into the top corner before Hayes beat his man to glance header home to make it 2-0
It was a lead they would never lose as despite Elliott Hartley squaring for Brown to tap into an open net, a late red card for City’s Ben Tilbury ultimately left the visitors with an uphill quest.