WORCESTER City boss John Snape expects to provoke a positive reaction from his dropped players after putting their “noses out of joint”.

Captain Jordan Stoddart and attacker James Baldwin were demoted to the bench for Worcester’s trip to Sporting Khalsa on Saturday while midfielder Chris Withington and full-back Joel Caines did not even make the matchday squad.

Snape said he felt the changes were necessary following their 6-1 thrashing by Westfields in the Midland League Premier Division two weeks ago.

But after conceding a late goal to draw 2-2 with Khalsa Snape insisted the quartet were still in the mix to return to the starting line-up and needed them to “give their all” when called upon.

“I made some big calls,” Snape said.

“Obviously Caines, Witto, Stodds and Baldwin came out of the side from that Westfields game.

“They were disappointed with that but I expected them to react in the right way.

“We have got several games in a very short space of time and we need everybody.

“Nobody likes being left out or coming off but it is part of the game.

“I had to change something because of the defeat against Westfields and although we are gutted that we haven’t won the game I thought we had a positive input from the boys.”

City have six further games to play in a congested December, starting with a Worcestershire FA Senior Urn semi-final against landlords Bromsgrove Sporting at the Victoria Ground on Tuesday (7.45pm).

“It is a squad game and it is about winning matches.” Snape continued.

“If you do well you will stay in. If you don’t do well you will come out.

“The other factor in this is that there is a high turnover of games, so some people will struggle and pick up some little niggles.

“There is no point overworking somebody if we can get fresh legs in there so there will be changes on Tuesday and they will be positive.

“I expect one or two of them that have been left out with their noses out of joint to be ready to come back in, work hard and give their all for the football club.”

On the response of Baldwin who came off the bench to put City in front, Snape added: “James is a fantastic footballer.

“When we are away from home and we are in last 20 minutes he is a match-winner. He always has been.

“Maybe sometimes he doesn’t have that desired effect from the start.

“But James has started a lot more games this year and I think he is progressing.”

Worcester slipped a place to eighth and are now 13 points off leaders Ilkeston Town who beat Westfields 2-1.

“This was the start of five games in so many days,” Snape said.

“After that period we will know where we are.

“We have got two home games back-back which is fantastic.

“Our performances away from home have been better for some reason.

“But that’s something we are hopefully going to remedy on Tuesday night against Bromsgrove.

“There will be a decent crowd, it will be lively and it is semi-final.

“We have had some travelling supporters on Saturday.

“This time of year is tough but they have come out and wanted us to do well.”