York City 0, Burton Albion 1

Having just seen his side squander a hatful of chances that would have easily finished off Burton Albion, you can bet it was a wish that he was still at KitKat Crescent as Burton shocked City into their first home league defeat, and their third consecutive loss.

Top class defending by Darren Tinson prevented Clayton Donaldson from converting the chance of the first half into a 22nd minute goal after Darren Dunning's clearance was headed forward by Joe O'Neill in text book fashion to Donaldson. He cut through Terry Henshaw and Tinson, but Tinson jockeyed him across the goalmouth until the eventual half-blocked shot had next to nothing in the power department.

Donaldson also later found out why Albion 'keeper Saul Deeney was being scouted by former York City custodian Graham Brown for a League One club as he came out and smothered the ball at his feet after being put through by Mark Convery 11 minutes after half time.

Deeney's decisive action was in stark contrast to the fumbling of Chris Porter as he half-smothered a Chris Hall cross, the ball spilling out from under his body for Shaun Harrad and ex-City loanee Jon Shaw to close in before Porter got his knees over the ball to protect it.

He could not have been blamed for the goal though. The Burton contingent were later heralding a superb individual effort while McEwan was left cursing the defenders.

Hall picked up the ball just inside the half, played a clever one-two with former York loanee Shaw then jinked his way through David McGurk, Dave Merris and debutant loan-signing Lee Andrews into the box before rifling a low shot under the unsighted Porter's body.

But despite an overwhelming lack of ideas in the City midfield, the Minstermen stepped up another level in search of an equaliser.

The much-improved Lev Yalcin, who has rediscovered the art of tackling since the Grays match last week, unleashed a dipping shot from 25 yards out and then saw a low strike from inside the box, after a one-two with Dunning from a corner, deflected wide.

But it was Andy Bishop who was presented with the chance of the match on a platter by substitute Ryan Mallon. Merris sent the ball into the box, Mallon flicked it back into the path of Bishop and Bishop sent it wide of the virtually open goal.

After a flying start to the campaign, it was probably inevitable there would be a City dip sooner or later. The ball doesn't bounce for you, decisions go against you, the luck turns. That's football.

The biggest concern for City though is the lack of initiative.

The absence of movement from throw-ins is embarrassingly akin to Sunday league football, and it says something when the most interesting thing to have happened from a throw was Jamie Price getting penalised twice in five minutes for taking one from the wrong place. Maybe he was distracted by the glittery tops of the new cheerleaders sat nearby.

City are currently without captain Mark Hotte, vice-captain Emmanuel Panther and deputy vice-captain Nathan Peat. All three are key players, and without them, City are struggling to unlock the winning formula.

There was more than a hint of a long ball game creeping into City's tactics on Saturday with the midfield a virtual no-go zone without Panther. McEwan brought on Bryan Stewart and Mallon to add width and challenge the Albion full-backs, but it just wasn't enough.

You have to wonder what might have been had Mansaram - or any other in-form striker - been waiting in the wings.

Match facts

York City 0, Burton Albion 1 (Hall 78)

City ratings: Key: 10 - Faultless; 9 - Outstanding; 8 - Excellent; 7 - Good; 6 - Average; 5 - Below par; 4 - Poor; 3 - Dud; 2 - Hopeless; 1 - Retire

Porter 6

Price 6

Andrews 6

McGurk 7

Merris 7

Convery 7 (Mallon 81)

Yalcin 6

Dunning 7

O'Neill 7 (Stewart 74)

Bishop 6

Donaldson 6

Burton Albion: Deeney, Henshaw,Tinson (Todd 50), Austin, Webster, Sedgemore, Bell, Stride, Hall, Harrad (Corbett 84), Shaw. Subs not used: Ducros, Taylor, Clough.

Yellow cards: Harrad 1, Bell 45, Price 51, Aaron Webster 70,

Referee: Karl Evans (Manchester) rating: On the ball from the whistle with a booking after just 42 seconds.

Attendance: 2,411

Weather watch: Fine and bright but chilly.

Game breaker: Chris Hall's fine individual goal sealed it, but Andy Bishop should have levelled it in the 87th minute.

Match rating: The first 20 minutes were fantastic the rest was short on ideas and action.

McEwan's verdict: "I thought we could have got something out of the game.

"They never actually troubled us much but they caught us on the break and we were disappointed with the goal we conceded."

Player watch: Lee Andrews

Shots on target: 0

Shots off target: 0

Blocked shots: 0

Passes to own player: 15

Passes to opposition: 4

Crosses to own player: 0

Crosses to opposition: 0

Pass success rate: 78.9 per cent

Dribbles ball retained: 1

Dribbles ball lost: 1

Dribble success rate: 50 per cent

Headers: 12 Tackles: 3

Clearances, blocks and interceptions: 7

Free-kicks won: 1

Free-kicks conceded: 0

Offsides: 0 Bookings: 0

Final summary: On-loan Carlisle defender Lee Andrews was plunged straight into the action without even having a training session but he performed solidly with 12 headers and with more than three-quarters of his passes finding York shirts. He was caught in possession with the ball once, but scrapped his way through and managed to get the ball away to a team-mate.

Updated: 09:51 Monday, November 14, 2005