WORCESTER City joint manager Matt Gardiner pinpointed the areas where his side needs to improve after they suffered a third straight defeat at Brackley.

The visitors managed just three shots on target all game and paid the price for a couple of mistakes that gifted the home side their two goals.

Gardiner said: “If you concede goals like that then you’re not going to win any football matches.

“We haven’t really tested the Brackley Town goalkeeper – we’ve got in positions but not hit the target. So with a combination of conceding poor goals and not looking like scoring then you are where you are.

“There were some better elements but we have another game on Monday to put things right. The players are still very confident on the ball and are stroking it about but we need some more end product and some more penetration in the final third.

“But the goals we have conceded were the nail in our coffin on the performance and the result.

“It’s about cutting out the sloppy mistakes for the goals and we need to work the goalkeeper more.”

City named just four substitutes with central defenders Clayton McDonald and Jacob Rowe both missing the trip to Northamptonshire.

“Clayton has his suspension coming up so we decided it was a good period of time for him to go and get fitter,” explained Gardiner.

“Everyone can see where he’s played and what he’s done but it’s just that little bit of fitness work so we have given him that block to do that.

“We will have Jacob Rowe coming back in for Monday – we didn’t take him to Brackley because we wanted him to get some extra work in.”

And Gardiner also explained the reasoning behind the early substitution of striker Ryan Rowe and the second-half withdrawal of defender Alex Gudger.

“Ryan had a dead leg which he felt in the warm-up and it just got worse and worse as it tightened so we had to make an early change," said Gardiner.

"We will assess him but hopefully he will be fit for Monday.

“With Alex, we wanted to chase the game and I didn’t want to put him in a risk position because he was on a booking and I didn’t want to finish the game with 11 men.”