YORK City winger Michael Coulson believes he is ready to end his ten-month long wait for a first-team start if selected at Dagenham & Redbridge tomorrow.

Coulson has been restricted to six appearances – all as a substitute – since suffering cruciate knee ligament damage for the third time in his career at Accrington Stanley last October.

But the 25-year-old attacker enjoyed the longest outing following his injury when he replaced Sander Puri after 22 minutes of Tuesday’s 4-0 Capital One Cup defeat to Burnley and reported no ill affects afterwards, saying: “My body felt pretty good and it was nice to get the run out.

“I’m just working towards getting in the team because that’s the main thing. I want to be playing so I will just keep doing my best and see what happens.

“It’s been a frustrating time in my career because I got off to a good start here but, if I do start tomorrow, I would hope to do well for the team and, hopefully, help to get another three points.”

City travel south after a chastising time against their Championship opponents in midweek.

But Coulson was in no mood to cite Burnley’s higher status as an excuse for a performance he believes the team will need to improve on this weekend.

On the cup display, he added: “I don’t think we did ourselves justice. We could have given them a much better game but we’ve sorted that out on the training ground.

“We have to put it to the back of our minds now and concentrate on tomorrow. We got off to a good start in the League by beating Northampton and we want to kick on and get right up there.”

Coulson was a second-half substitute as the Minstermen made Football League survival certain with a 1-0 victory at Dagenham on the final day of last season.

More than a thousand away fans made the journey that day and, while that number is unlikely to be matched tomorrow, Coulson is hoping the vocal support can be just as strong.

“It’s a ground we have good memories of because the backing from our fans was excellent,” he recalled. “Hopefully, they will be down there again and will get behind the boys.

“They are a big, strong side who work hard and give 100 per cent so we will have to get in their faces, pressure the ball and be up for it.”

Coulson was originally brought to Bootham Crescent to be a key player in previous manager Gary Mills’ 4-3-3 formation but he is unfazed by Nigel Worthington’s current preference for 4-4-2, pointing out: “I played 4-4-2 at Grimsby before I came to York so it’s not a problem.

“You need to be able to play in more than one position and formation. I feel I can do that and everyone can benefit from that.”

Coulson also has no preference on whether he attacks down the left or right for City and is happy to swap wings with Ashley Chambers when needed, as the injured Puri has also done during the opening two games.

“Playing on the left, I am more of a goal threat because I can cut inside and shoot but, as long as I am on the pitch, I’m not really fussy,” he added. “It’s good to swap flanks too because sometimes a full-back might be on top of you and it means you can have a go at another one and might get a bit of joy.

“I think it’s a good thing that we can all play on either side.”

 

• SIX months since his appointment, Wayne Burnett is still searching for his first home win as Dagenham & Redbridge boss ahead of tomorrow’s League Two contest against York City.
The Daggers have taken just two points from a possible 21 at their Victoria Road base with Burnett at the helm for all but the first game of that sequence.

In fact, since taking over from John Still at the Essex club in February, Burnett has managed just two victories from 14 games and his side go into their latest encounter on the back of five successive defeats – their worst run of form since November 2011.

Dagenham ended last season with three consecutive losses, including a season-ending 1-0 home defeat to the Minstermen and only survived relegation on goal difference after Barnet failed to take a point at Northampton on the final day of 2012/13.

Since then, Burnett’s men have lost their two opening fixtures of the new campaign – 3-1 at Fleetwood and 3-2 at Brentford in the Capital One Cup.

Having recently missed out on signing free agent Zavon Hines, released from Bradford City in the summer, only two new players have also made the starting line up during those two opening games – ex-Torquay centre-back Brian Saah and one-time Arsenal trainee striker Rhys Murphy.

Burnett is still, meanwhile, expected to be without Luke Wilkinson and Matt Saunders for the Minstermen’s visit.

Centre-back Wilkinson is recovering from a groin injury that saw him miss the whole of pre-season, while midfielder Saunders is struggling with a heel problem.

No changes are, therefore, likely to be made from the team that lost to Brentford on Tuesday night and the hosts are set to line up in a 4-3-3 formation.

Two of the side’s three frontmen – Murphy and Jake Reed – have only one Football League goal to their names, however, despite a combined tally of 41 appearances.

Dagenham (probable): Lewington, Hoyte, Doe, Saah, Ilesanmi, Ogogo, Howell, Elito, Murphy, Reed, Scott.

 

Match facts

CITY have made four trips to Dagenham – three of them in the Conference – winning three times.

Their first visit was in 2004/5 when they won 3-0 and the following season they triumphed 2-0.

The only defeat at Victoria Road was in 2006/7 when they went down 2-1.

City ended last season with the 1-0 win at Dagenham thanks to a goal from Chris Smith and the line-up on April 27, 2013, was: Ingham, Oyebanjo, McGurk, Smith, O’Connell, Parslow, A Reed, Platt, Blair (Coulson), Walker, (J Reed), Chambers.

It happened on August 10

1968: City started this Fourth Division season with a 2-0 defeat at Chester. Making his debut that day was Phil Boyer who had been signed from Derby County. He went on to score 34 goals for the club in 125 senior appearances and later played for Bournemouth, Norwich City and Southampton and was capped for England.

1999: In a first round first leg League Cup tie, City lost at home 1-0 to Division Two (League One) Wigan Athletic watched by 1,921.

2002: A 1-1 draw at Macclesfield on the opening day of the Third Division (League Two) campaign with Peter Duffield the marksman.

Compiled by David Batters