MANAGER Carl Heeley fought back the tears as he issued a plea to supporters to stick with the club as they prepare to leave St George’s Lane.

An emotionally-draining day ended with champions Chester claiming a 1-0 victory at the century-old stadium, thanks to captain George Horan’s eighth-minute header.

Heeley felt his players gave a performance to be proud of and thought they were unfortunate not to at least secure a point against a team that played the entire second-half with 10 men.

But he has called on fans to put consign their feelings regarding the reasons for leaving the Lane to the past and focus on the challenge ahead.

He said: “There are many emotions — sadness, anger and frustration — but it was great to play in front of this crowd and it was lovely to see the Lane full one last time.

“Sadness is one thing but you need to take the anger and frustration out because I’ve gone through that and realised that’s not going to save the club.

“We have to look at positives and what we as players, directors and supporters can do to help the club survive.

“We can’t change the past and any amount of anger is not going to resolve that.

“There were more than 4,000 in the crowd and, as a personal plea, I want them to come and get behind us and give us a chance.

“It’s going to be incredibly tough in the next year or two but things like the Supporters’ Trust gives me a huge lift and I want to be at the helm to bring the club back into Worcester at the highest level as we can.

“I’m up for the challenge and so is Matt Gardiner and we want to try and survive at the highest level of football we can but we need our loyal supporters.”

The City boss continued: “The quality of the team will reflect the budget and that is largely dictated by who comes and watches us or who pledge the £100 season tickets.

“This season we’ve played some good football at times, we’ve had highs and lows and major frustrations but the ability is up there with the best although consistency hasn’t, hence where we’ve finished.

“I can’t fault the players’ efforts and there’s enough to encourage supporters because there’s a core of a very good side.”

Worcester came close to cancelling out Horan’s goal, sub Ethan Moore hitting the post being the pick of the bunch.

Heeley said: “The players got hyped up in the game and I thought for the first 10 minutes the match passed us by but we settled down and played some great stuff. We were unfortunate to lose.

“We acquitted ourselves well, I’m pleased but disappointed, with the number of chances I felt we should have got something from the game but I can’t fault the effort.”