JOINT-boss John Snape defended the decision not to send off Worcester City's Nathan Hayward for a challenge that saw his opponent carried off with ligament damage.

Hayward never looked likely to beat breaking Westfields midfielder Matt Reeve to the ball four minutes before half-time in City's 4-2 win on Wednesday with his lunge punished by a yellow card from referee John Roskelly. 

The City midfielder has since taken to Twitter to wish Reeve a speedy recovery and explain how the collision panned out.

Hayward posted: "My 50-50 tackle is being made out to be something it’s not. We were both committed and he got there before me.

"It was not over the ball as clearly shows both our feet are at the same level, never have had the intention to hurt the lad.

"I wish the lad a speedy recovery, if I had pulled out I would of been hurt myself. This is how the game goes.

"(It was) a bit of bad statement when saying over the ball when he just nicked away the ball as clearly shown in the picture. Like I said, I hope he has a speedy recovery."

Counterpart Sean Edwards labelled the tackle “horrendous” but Snape argued Roskelly had made the right call. 

“I have known Nathan Hayward for four or five years. He is tenacious, strong and wants to win the ball at every opportunity,” said Snape.

“It was a full-hearted challenge but I didn’t think he went off the floor. I have seen red cards given in similar circumstances and the referee had a difficult decision to make but I felt it was the right call.”

The flashpoint came after City had equalised twice having conceded after 28 seconds and shipped a second through a Matt Gwynne blunder. 

Jamie Molyneux sent an early finish looping over Gwynne from a Ben Hayes centre but City levelled 24 minutes in when Dave Reynolds hammered into the empty net from 20 yards after Brad Birch had tangled with keeper Alex Harris.

Richard Greaves stood up a 30-yard cross from the right touchline which Gwynne fumbled into the net as he tried gather only for Birch to hit back with a thumping header back across goal from George Forsyth’s tantalising free-kick.

City dominated after half-time but looked to be running out of time until Hayward sprayed to the right of the box for Birch to hook back across goal with Lee Hughes on hand to finish with four minutes to go.

Hughes then sealed the deal on the break, collecting Birch’s ball into the right channel before finishing low across Harris. 

“Alarm bells were ringing when we conceded so early,” said Snape.

“We had changed our system to account for the pitch, dropping in George Forsyth behind the three others but losing a goal like that makes you question whether it was the right thing to do.

“While they got in our faces and gave us a lot to deal with for the first 15 minutes, we got on the ball and did well in the right areas. 

“Brad Birch was the catalyst in the middle of the park. It was a great header and he made those runs time and time again, which Westfields struggled with. 

“It was more about the players than the system in the end. The goals hurt us and we saw that bit of extra willingness to do the horrible things well.

“Our midfield three do that well and it was nice to get Mat Birley pulling the strings, enabling us to make 10 or 12 passes and get in at the end of it. 

“I was over the moon with the performance but you always look at the whole package. We were disappointed with the goals and the couple of niggly bookings. Hopefully they won’t prove costly.”