FOR Worcester City to be successful, it is important we cut out the needless bookings and red cards.

With six games gone, we have already had Matt Breeze and Greg Mills sent off and four other players shown yellow cards.

Things like that cost us players for games and that will stretch us as the season goes on.

Along with getting a bit of luck with injuries, individual discipline will be key to our campaign.

I would not have expected to have had a couple of players dismissed in the first six games, that’s disappointing.

Matt’s challenge was a bit rash at Bradford Park Avenue but the two yellows for Greg against Colwyn Bay last Saturday were very unfortunate. I have seen both incidents and to say they were very innocuous is a bit of an understatement.

In fairness, however, I don’t think decisions have been that bad, the biggest majority of them have been the correct ones and I think overall we have to be happy with how things have gone for and against us.

Everybody mis-times a tackle, that’s football, but silly bookings for kicking the ball away or dissent are the ones we’ve got to try and avoid or even put a stop to because they’re in our control and are disappointing cautions.

They don’t really get noticed so much now but later on in the season, and certainly before the turn of the year, you will get banned for five yellow cards. The card count can mount up and prove costly when you are cautioned despite making a genuine attempt to get the ball.

You are never going to totally stop it and sometimes they are necessary in games but there’s no excuse for dissent, they’re the ones that shouldn’t happen.

We all get frustrated with decisions when you think they’ve gone against you but complaining about them isn’t going to change it. It’s better just to accept it and hope they even themselves out.

On the injury front, we were without Rob Elvins at Histon and Shabir Khan has missed the last couple of games, which has restricted our options.

There is a massive element of luck in this area but it’s also about looking after your body. When you’re working full-time and play part-time football sometimes you need a rest and a night off from training.

I think players need to be honest with themselves and us and if they feel they would benefit from an evening off then I’d rather have them fit for the game.

They know their bodies better than anyone else and they need to trust us to make the right decisions as we see fit. Missing a training session to be right for a game is the better option but they’re a young bunch of lads and they want to play every day.

It’s sometimes difficult to sit out but it will pay dividends as the campaign wears on.