PATIENCE and width will be the key lessons for York City to take into Saturday's Nationwide Conference match at home to Stevenage Borough after a positive show against League One Blackpool last night.

Holders Blackpool clinched victory with goals from John Murphy and a Keigan Parker penalty.

The 2-0 defeat signalled a first round exit from the LDV Vans Trophy for the eighth consecutive year but City'sdisplay made up for the disappointment of not progressing.

Player-manager Chris Brass said: "We certainly give them a scare and performance-wise, it's important that we come off and take all the positives.

"We need to make sure that we keep together as a team and keep learning about each other. There's still a lot of work to do but we've got to make sure we take that out of tonight and into the game at Stevenage on Saturday.

"The lads are disappointed but there are a lot of positives to be taken out of it and they are starting to understand what we expect of them. They know they need to be a bit more patient and use the width that's available to them.

"We've just got to make sure that we continue to do that and bring a little bit more quality, which will come with confidence."

Brass praised the decision of referee Phil Prosser not to dismiss goalkeeper David Stockdale after bringing down Parker in the box, which could have resulted in a ban for the young shot-stopper.

He said: "Thankfully everyone seems to have a clean bill of health and the referee made the right decision to just give David a yellow. If we had lost and he had given David a red card it would have been difficult to accept but thankfully that didn't happen."

Updated: 10:01 Thursday, September 30, 2004