WORCESTER City’s joint-boss John Snape argued THREE Rugby Town players should have seen red during a bruising battle at Butlin Road.

Snape hailed the resilience of his charges after a hard-fought 1-0 win that saw no fewer than five City players pick up fresh injuries.

Jordan Stoddart (hamstring), Alex Tomkinson (dead leg), Tyler Weir (back), Dave Reynolds (hamstring) and James Baldwin (knee) will all need to be assessed prior to Tuesday’s trip to AFC Wulfrunians (7.45).

Robust and at-times-cynical challenges led Snape to call for more protection from match officials with the main flashpoint, a melee just past the hour mark, his greatest cause for concern.

Baldwin was fouled from behind on the turn with Rugby’s Sam Beasley and Josh Ruff and Weir booked as a result of the skirmish that followed.

Prior to that, Baldwin hit the deck during a tangle with Valley keeper Niall Cooper, although Reynolds netted what proved to be the winner from the loose ball.

“For the life of me I cannot see how their goalkeeper, number five (Sean Castleton) and number six (Beasley) stayed on the pitch,” said Snape.

“The keeper took out James Baldwin on the goal line, it was a certain penalty and red card but we carried on and to be fair to Dave Reynolds he put it away very well in a crowded goal mouth.

“The interruption from one of our players getting strangled and their lad only getting a yellow card only helped Rugby.

“We were probably guilty of giving them a couple of chances late in the game but the disappointing thing was that might not have happened had our players been protected properly.

“Now we have to contend with six or seven injuries picked up from some horrendous challenges but we dug in and bounced back from last week so the lads deserve all of the credit.

“Hopefully, we proved the Khalsa defeat was a blip. We showed what we have in the side and gained three points back on the leaders who were off on FA Vase duty so it was a positive result and a performance I was very happy with too.”

On City’s display, Snape added: “The pitch played well, it was a nice surface all things considered and the game was a good one to watch.

“Both sides took 10-15 minutes to settle in but as we grew into the game, we created quite a few chances and were guilty of missing two or three very good openings before half-time.

“We had dominated and could have finished off the game in the first 45 minutes. We were still wary of them on the break, they had four very good offensive players who rotated well so we had to stay alive to everything.

“That said, we were well on top for most of the match.”