WORCESTER City's next two games in the Hellenic League Premier have been moved away from Claines Lane.

City will face both Fairford Town (Saturday, December 30) and Highworth Town (January 1) at the HDAnywhere Community Stadium, home of local rivals Malvern Town in the Southern League Division One South.

The decision has been made due to the state of the playing surface at City's home ground, which has see four games postponed in December, three of those due to a waterlogged pitch.

The Worcester Derby with Raiders on Boxing Day was called off three hours before kick-off following the rain on Christmas Day and with more forecast, the games with Fairford on Saturday and Highworth on Monday were also under threat.

As a result, City have come to an agreement to move those two fixtures onto the artificial pitch at Malvern's stadium.

In a statement, City said: "Whilst we do not wish to move from our current home venue, we deem the decision to be the correct one with the current problems we face with the pitch at Claines Lane, something that this current and forecast rain is only going to make worse."

Much has been made about the issues regarding the surface at Claines Lane, part of the reason a meeting between City supporters and the chiefs at the Worcestershire FA - who own the facility - was held earlier this month.

"As a Board, we will be working closely with the Worcestershire FA in the early part of the new year to understand how these problems can be rectified to try to ensure no more fixtures are moved offsite," the statement continued.

"We would like to place on record our thanks to our friends at Malvern Town for allowing us to host at their facility, the league for agreeing to move venues to ensure games are played, and our opponents."

Tickets for those games will be made available online at www.wcfcshop.com and further information such as parking will be released before the end of the week.