CITY'S winning goal at Chippenham has unleashed a storm of vitriol in Wiltshire with Bluebirds boss Tommy Saunders dubbing Worcester 'cheats'.

The accusation stems from City's failure to return the ball to their hosts following Scott Walker's injury after a clash with Paul Carty.

The veteran full back then compounded matters by popping up to score two minutes later.

But Carty insists that Chippenham's clearance into touch was in fact a hashed kick and not, as the Bluebirds claimed, an attempt to put the ball out so Walker could receive treatment.

Carty was also adamant that if Walker had been seriously hurt the ball would have been dispatched into touch immediately but that did not arise.

"I went for a challenge and we collided heavily but at the time I thought he was alright," said Carty. "If it had been really serious of course we would have put it out.

"As it was the move continued out to the right where Craig Woodley had the ball but then lost it.

"Their defender then made a hash of clearing it and it went out. We just thought he cleared it, we didn't think he'd deliberately cleared it out so we played on."

While Chippenham's frustration is understandable it doesn't entirely stand up to scrutiny. In my opinion it was what you might term a 'racing incident'. Had the Bluebirds been on the attack with a chance to score would they have put the ball out so Walker could get treatment? I think not.

The fact is before the ball was finally 'cleared' into touch by a Bluebirds defender, Walker was sitting up following play.

It was clear he was not seriously injured (as in a head wound that needed absolutely urgent attention) but what was also clear was that in a must win game for both sides there was little room for sentiment.

From the stand side it also looked like a scuffed clearance into touch - not a case of a defender deliberately putting the ball out.

For Carty the chance to score the winner made up for his poor marking for the Chippenham opener.

"I was a bit disappointed with their goal because their player ghosted in behind me and hit it perfectly so I was relieved to make amends," he added.

"It was nice to score but I'm even happier getting the three points. When they scored first I thought 'here we go again' but the lads worked really hard.

"John Barton deserves a bit of luck as well. He's a great manager, a lovely bloke to work for and it's just a shame we have not had a few more results to match what the performances have deserved."