WORCESTER City manager Andy Preece believes his team need look no further than themselves for the cause of Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Vauxhall Motors.

Adam Burley was sent off and Mark Danks missed a penalty as City's unbeaten record away from St George's Lane came to a halt.

Preece was full of praise for an improved performance but admitted a lack of discipline cost his side.

The manager said: "It's all our own doing, we are our own worst enemies at the minute but what I am pleased about is we've stepped up on the performances.

"The performance against Redditch was good and the performance until we got the sending off was good again at Vauxhall.

"Our performances have stepped up and our points tally has gone down. We have just got to keep going because ultimately we'll get what we deserve.

"But if you shoot yourselves in the foot by getting players sent off that's going to hurt you."

The manager added: "Ill discipline has cost us. We were totally comfortable in the game, they hadn't created one opportunity and we looked solid again.

"It's another game where we should be winning and we've lost.

"We've definitely stepped up our last two performances but we've only got one point from it. I still take a lot of positives out of it but once you go down to 10 men that obviously makes a big difference."

City's good start at Ellesmere Port was largely down to better passing and a strong rearguard in Des Lyttle, Shabir Khan and Justin Thompson.

Preece said: "We are passing the ball much better, our passing hasn't been good all season.

"The back three are solid. Obviously as we pushed on we looked a bit open but before that Vauxhall never had a sniff.

"We are happy with that, we've just got to try and get the balance right with the attack and the midfield and I am sure that will come."

He added: "We have had a great record away and we should have maintained it but we just have to keep playing the way we are, find a bit more quality in the final third and keep our discipline, and we will be in with a good shout.

"It's disappointing because we feel we could be in a real strong position now."