JASON Walker is hoping York City’s fortunes in front of goal have changed.

Minstermen chief Gary Mills identified a host of missed chances as the leading reason behind his team’s failure to win any of their seven games prior to Saturday’s 3-2 success at Rochdale.

But Walker, who admitted his goal at the weekend in between two Michael Potts strikes owed a little to luck, feels that the Spotland match could now prove a turning point.

He said: “You don’t doubt yourself when you’ve been on a run like we’d been on. You just get disappointed because you know what’s in the locker – we all do. It was just about taking those chances.

“Things haven’t been falling for us but, for my goal, I was trying to take a touch and it’s gone in the back of the net. I could say it was a perfect finish but it wasn’t and that type of thing hasn’t been happening recently.

“Hopefully, after Saturday, we will gain a lot of confidence and things will start going our way.”

Walker’s fifth goal of the season also ended a personal drought of seven games, stretching back to that previous victory against Accrington Stanley at the end of October.

“It gets a bit frustrating,” Walker admitted about his recent lack of goals.

“You don’t get a lot of chances up there being the one up front, but that’s the role I have played since I’ve been here and I’ve really enjoyed it.

“It’s tough when you’re not scoring but, hopefully, I can go on a bit of a run now.”

The £60,000 striker was also pleased to make the scoresheet on his return to the side after being left out of the starting line-up for the previous two games.

He was recalled at the expense of Jamie Reed and added that he was surprised to win back his place so soon, saying: “My form dipped a little bit and, with Reedy coming on and scoring, he deserved his chance.

“He’s done really well and he was unfortunate to be dropped.

“I wasn’t expecting to play really but the manager gave me the nod and we played well and I scored, so it’s ended up not being too bad for me.”

Walker believed that the team produced their best football this term during the first half at Rochdale and attributed that to a productive week of training on the Bootham Crescent pitch.

He added: “We played our best football of the season by far in the first half. It was how we know we can play and, to be fair to the manager and the coaching staff, they addressed what was wrong after the Torquay match, drilled it into us and we worked on it all week.

“We came out firing on all cylinders and they couldn’t live with us really. It was tougher in the second half because you know they are going to come at you.

“The first goal gave them a bit of a lift but we hung on for three points.”

Walker and his team-mates are now preparing for a long trek to face Plymouth on Saturday with the former Luton and Barrow forward reasoning that another positive result on the road can help to transform the side’s fortunes at home.

City have now won seven more away points than they have collected at Bootham Crescent, and Walker added: “We don’t know why the away form is better than our form at home.

“It’s just one of those burdens on our shoulders but we will go to Plymouth full of confidence as we always do when we travel. I love going on overnight stays with the lads.

“I share a room with Scott Kerr and just give him dog’s abuse all the time. Plymouth have a nice stadium and, hopefully, a good pitch as well so, if we play like we did on Saturday, we will have every chance of getting another result.

“If we do, then who knows, we could take that belief into the home games and go on a run of five or six wins to push us up the table.”