MANAGER Carl Heeley was critical of his side after they suffered their first defeat in nine league games against an in-form Tamworth side.

Worcester City paid the price for giving away a series of free-kicks in the second-half and it was from one of these that Paul Green stabbed home the only goal of the game.

Heeley said: “You are never going to go unbeaten forever, but I’m certainly happier that we have had the run.

“It’s more in the manner we have got beaten today. We have shot ourselves in the foot. I don’t want to take anything away from Tamworth because they are a good side, but we have been better than that and we’ve let ourselves down a bit.

“We shouldn’t have lost the game. We got them chasing shadows in the first-half and the only thing I could be critical of at half-time was that we hadn’t worked the goalkeeper.

“But in the second-half we stopped passing the ball and persisted in giving stupid free-kick after stupid free-kick away and that was the only way I could see that Tamworth were going to score.

“But we did it again and again and eventually we got punished which is disappointing and sloppy.

“We would have been happy taking a point and I think we have contributed massively to our own downfall.”

Heeley made two changes to the side that faced Hednesford in the abandoned match at Aggborough on Boxing Day. Keeper Jose Veiga came in for Nathan Vaughan and Wayne Thomas returned to the defence, with Danny Jackman dropping out.

“Danny took a bang above the knee which has swollen and Shabir Khan went down with a sickness bug overnight,” the City boss added.

“Nathan Vaughan was missing with a bit of a groin strain but hopefully we will have all three of them back for Hednesford on New Year's Day.”

n Kidderminster Harriers were beaten 1-0 at home by Southport in the Conference, courtesy of Luke George's 66th minute strike.