MANAGER Ashley Vincent insists Worcester City will not go out to influence officials – despite the risk of “streetwise” opponents benefiting from calls.

City had a penalty saved and another clear spot-kick waved away by man-in-the-middle Aaron Ford in Tuesday’s 1-0 home defeat to Coventry United in the Midland Football League Premier Division.

READ MORE | Report, player ratings & as it happened | City 0 Coventry United 1

The visitors earned their win with forceful display that was mixed with savvy time-draining tactics and by getting in Ford’s ear.

It is not the first time this season that City have been on the wrong end of calls made by officials put under pressure by robust opponents but Vincent has no intention of taking that route.

“Some people say it is streetwise," said Vincent. 

"I played in teams that did it and got lots of decisions, I also played in teams where it didn’t work and it went against us.

“We are an honest bunch that doesn’t roll around, we get up and get on with it and are not there to get people booked or crowd the referee to get decisions.

"They have a job to do and we are asking them to do that to the best of their ability.

“I am not going to tell the likes of Liam Lockett or Josh Willis to scream and shout at referees because that is not what they do. They want to get on with the game and create chances. It is an admirable way to play the game.

"Yes, certain decision may have gone against us by not getting around referees but I don’t think I am going to get my players to do that.

“Sometimes I do enough of that from the side because I want the best for my team and the right things.

“I don’t call for things that shouldn’t be given, I just want the right decisions made and for me they weren’t on this occasion.”

The biggest controversy came when Ford pointed to his head to indicate that Luke Downes had not handballed Jordan Harrison’s looping effort midway through the second half with replays showing the United man’s arm to be outstretched and away from his body.

“It was a penalty,” said Vincent.

“He had two arms above his head, it clearly strikes his arm and it was not like the referee did not see it because he waved to say no penalty.

“At any level of football that is a penalty. The referee was not 25 yards away, he was not looking through bodies, he saw it but didn’t give it.

“There were some big decisions, their lad got booked early on and then made another yellow-card tackle and he gave him a warning.

“He got the big decisions wrong and it felt to me that the game was too big for him.

READ MORE | Vincent - "You can't replace" Birch at City's level 

READ MORE | City told to stop "cage rattling" over Perdiswell 

READ MORE | Raiders close in on groundshare "until Christmas or for the whole season"

“It shouldn’t matter how many penalties he had given, if there are five penalties in a game then you give five.

“If that’s what the outcome should be then the referee should act accordingly. I don’t want to get at him, though, we had chances aside from the penalty that we missed.

“I think the big chances in the game were ours and there was a number of them.

“They were desperate, getting booked for timewasting with 20 minutes to go and even after the game their manager and a couple of players said we did not deserve to get beaten and that we had been the better side.

“That is the difficult thing for me, when you are the better side you have to capitalise. When you have the chances we did you have to take them and win games, especially at home.

“It sounds like I am repeating myself but we had enough chances to win two games.

"It is even more of a sucker punch when the other side tells you that and you come away with nothing. It is disappointing.”