WORCESTER City joint-manager Carl Heeley is urging his players to cut out their red-card woes.

Heeley says Clayton McDonald’s dismissal “killed” City in Tuesday’s 3-0 Vanarama National League North defeat at rivals Solihull Moors.

Defender McDonald was the third City player sent off in four matches, joining Kieron Morris and winger Ashley Vincent who are already facing suspensions.

City are 17th in the table with four points from four matches.

Worcester are among seven teams on four points, including Chorley who visit Aggborough on Saturday (3pm).

“It’s been a frustrating start to the season for a number of reasons — the lack of discipline and the times when we’ve played exceedingly well and then gone slack — but it’s early on,” said Heeley.

“We’ve only played four games and we’ve got to remember that.

“There’s lots of good qualities in there. If we can keep our full complement of players on the pitch then we can try and make positive changes, those who can make an impact on the game.”

City were under pressure before Solihull opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 35th minute.

McDonald stopped Stefan Moore’s shot with an arm, earning him a second booking, and Moore made no mistake from the spot.

“We had to be right on it against Solihull and I thought we started the game very well,” said Heeley.

“But going down to 10 men absolutely killed us and killed the game.

“It’s something we have to erase from our game because we can be a match for anyone in this league as long as we give ourselves a chance.

“It’s frustrating because you want 11 men on the pitch. If we had had 11 then the game would have been a lot closer."

Darryl Knights doubled Solihull’s lead with a drive and Knights sealed the points with his second goal with eight minutes remaining.

Heeley said “I’m not going to make any bold statements about how we would have won the game because Solihull are a good team and it would be disrespectful to them.

“But I would like to see us with 11 men because in three of the four games we’ve not finished with 11 and that’s a major problem which has to be sorted out.

“I know football’s an emotive game and you get frustrated but you need to learn how to curb those frustrations at key moments.”

Nathan Vaughan was the pick of City’s players, pulling off a string of saves including two brilliant reflex efforts to deny Knights. Heeley said: “Vaughan was outstanding.”