ANDY Preece has threatened to wield the axe on his Worcester City squad.

The St George's Lane chief was fuming after City crashed 4-1 at Harrogate Town on Saturday, the club's heaviest ever defeat in Nationwide North.

Calamitous defending was the source of Worcester's downfall again, with individual errors accounting for the Yorkshire side's first three goals.

The third defeat in six outings sent City plummeting to fifth from bottom in Nationwide North -- 11 points worse off than leaders Northwich.

Preece is fast becoming disenchanted with the slide in results and, in an attack on his squad, warned that players must 'pull their fingers out' to save their City career.

"There's not a lot I can do with the squad at the moment," said Preece. "But there's a lot I can do about it next year. If people don't start pulling their fingers out, they won't be part of it.

"Until next year it won't be my squad, because I've got players under contract who were brought here before me. People have got to do more, not just those on contract.

"I'm going to have a total budget to work on next year. Quite a lot of my current budget was taken up before we started this year. If the players want to be part of it, they have got to do more."