WORCESTER City manager Chris Cornes has been successful in appealing his red card against Fairford Town at the end of December.

A red card was shown to both Cornes and coach Nick Clayton following the 3-3 draw, in which Fairford scored a stoppage-time equaliser at the HDAnywhere Community Stadium in Malvern (December 30).

But, following an appeal and a hearing, City boss Cornes and Clayton have had their red cards overturned and they will not face any further punishment. 

"We appealed it," said Cornes. "We sent in video evidence and statements from ourselves before a tribunal hearing on Thursday (February 15) last week and it was found unproven that we should have been sent-off.

"So any ban has been wiped out and we knew it would. So that's that, we won!"

Cornes was potentially facing a match ban of anywhere between one and six games, having already sat out a match this season for an accumulation of yellow cards. But this will be welcomed news for Cornes and City, who won't have the distraction of losing their manager from the touchline. 

The boss also touched on the situation of two of his players regarding potential suspensions.

Defender Kirk Layton was sent off during Saturday's 2-1 win over Longlevens, alongside Longlevens' Luke Hitchman, following an off-the-ball incident late in the second-half.

"We have looked at it and there is so much going on, we can't really see if he's done anything wrong," Cornes said.

"If there is a case of mistaken identity, it is up to us to prove that and with so much going on, we have to prove that he didn't do anything wrong and it's going to be hard to prove that.

"So we think that it's going to be a three-game suspension, which will rule him out of the two trips to Westfields (league and cup) on Saturday and Tuesday, and then the game with Pershore Town (March 1)."

There were also some suggestions that midfielder and top goalscorer Kyle Belmonte would miss the quarter-final Isuzu FA Vase clash with Emley on March 9, but Cornes said he "is fine" to play.

"He served a ban during the Wolverhampton Casuals game for yellows/sin bin vs Sleaford earlier in the competition so as long as he doesn't get booked in the quarter-final he is fine to play, all yellow cards are then wiped out."