DES Lyttle and Tom Warmer have been released by Worcester City.

Andy Preece has taken the shock decision to let club captain Lyttle leave after budget cuts at St George's Lane.

Preece had considered appointing the former Nottingham Forest defender as assistant manager but feels the money would be better spent on a playing replacement.

The move brings to an end the skipper's second stint at the club, following a spell in the earlier 1990s, and he made 159 Worcester appearances in total.

Warmer departs to make way for a new face in City's midfield as they bid for a better season after missing out on the play-offs this time around.

Preece, who will remain player-manager, said: "The budget has been cut from what it was last year. It is probably a senior player short on last year.

"It's the position that the club is in. They have got to be as prudent as they can. It's no good moaning about it, that's the reality.

"We will be aiming again for that top-10 finish and see where that takes us."

But Preece said: "Des will be leaving. That was a very difficult decision because I think he has been a great example to all the younger lads and has been a great servant to the football club.

"I was considering keeping Des as assitant player-manager but to bring an extra player in within the budget I had to free that money up."

Shabir Khan, Nick Colley, George Clegg, Gary Walker, Danny Hodnett, Troy Wood and Shaun Findlay are mulling over contract offers, while the rest of the squad, including new signing Rapinder Gill, remain under contract.

As for Warmer, the manager said: "It was a difficult decision. Tom has done OK over the two years but we have not achieved what I wanted to achieve.

"He works his socks off in training and in the game. We just needed a little bit more from him this season. To bring someone in, someone has had to go."

Chairman Dave Boddy said: "It's a similar budget to this season. There's a lot made of budgets but there are teams who made the play-offs on smaller budgets and there are teams below us who spent more."

Boddy also said the past season was the first time he had felt disappointed in more than seven years as a director.

He said: "It was a good opportunity this season and to miss out by six points is agonisingly close.

"I felt that with the squad we had and the position we put ourselves in in January we should have made the play-offs."