WORCESTER City’s Jordan Stoddart vowed to learn from the “poor penalty” he conceded against Bromsgrove Sporting on Boxing Day and urged his colleagues to follow suit.

City let slip a three-goal lead to draw 3-3 in a pulsating Victoria Ground derby with the equaliser arriving after Stoddart halted Liam Holt’s dart into the box.

It was a “bittersweet” afternoon for the Worcester-based defender, who signed from Cirencester Town in November, having opened the scoring and his account for the club with a far-post header from Mat Birley’s inviting corner.

But while Stoddart acknowledged the need for City to reflect collectively on what happened ahead of Monday's return fixture (3pm), he argued the good elements should not be discarded in the wake of dropped points.

“We could have managed it a better beforehand,” said Stoddart of the penalty.

“He (Holt) came through a few players and looking back, I could have stood up. It was one of those split-second decisions and he was probably playing for it.

“I have to learn from that, it was a poor penalty to give away but we conceded three poor goals on the day.

“There was a real mix of emotions at the end. It was great to get off the mark with my first goal but we know we made a few errors with all of their goals. Looking back, all three came from our mistakes but we will get over it quickly and go again on Monday.

“It feels bittersweet now. At the time it was brilliant and a great ball from Mat Birley, we have been working on that and I am generally good with those headers.

“They put on a lot of pressure and did that well, we said at half-time that they would and knew what they would do. I believe we could have managed the game a bit better, we should not be conceding three goals in the manner we did.

“There are things to work on, things to reflect on but positives to take as well. Personally, it was disappointing and as a team we were quite deflated at the end.

“The crowd played a part, that was no surprise but we will prepare well, look to address the things that went wrong and we have to remember we still got a point out of it as well.

“I thought the lads put in a real shift and fair play to Bromsgrove for coming at us even after our third goal."

Stoddart has started each of City’s five matches since signing, featuring alongside three different defensive partners – Wayne Thomas, Mark Smith and George Forsyth.