YORK City boss Russ Wilcox believes his team’s attacking potency has been blunted by injury.

The Minstermen chief saw Reece Thompson score his second goal of the season during a 2-1 home defeat to Mansfield but the 21-year-old summer recruit from Frickley Athletic is the only striker to net during the club’s first seven fixtures.

During that period, Jake Hyde’s contributions have been limited by the recurring problems that saw him miss the whole of pre-season and, as a consequence, Emile Sinclair has also been rushed back into the squad following the thigh injury he suffered in March.

Vadaine Oliver, meanwhile, has started every match this term, but is yet to open his account for City, with Wilcox adding: “You have to make your chances count but we put a few over and a few wide (against Mansfield).

“There were also crosses flashing across the box and we needed somebody in there with a bit more instinct, but we’re still suffering with our strikers. Emile Sinclair is still trying to get up to speed and Jake Hyde is out injured again.

“Vadaine also needs a goal – we all know that. There was lots of huffing and puffing from him, but they dealt with him well.

“Reece scored again and looks the most likely to score for us at the moment but we need two or three others to chip in. We are working on it with finishing drills and, as a striker, you have to get between the sticks and then it’s down to execution.

“But I know we have strikers who can score goals. They just need confidence and belief.” Wilcox also bemoaned a lack of quality against Mansfield, who secured the points after Matt Green’s first-half brace cancelled out Thompson’s sixth-minute opener.

He said: “We’ve wasted a great opportunity to get into the top half of the table because a win would have taken us into 12th place. We scored first and had enough attempts at their goal but our quality was poor in terms of the final ball and final execution.

“I know there’s better quality in the dressing room than we showed out there and I feel we have a better group of players than I inherited last season, so we should be doing better than we did then and I play a part in that too because I pick the team and choose the formation.”

Wilcox went on to express his frustration that the team were trailing by the half-hour mark despite netting first.

“It’s disappointing not to manage the period after scoring that first goal with a good finish from Reece,” the City boss admitted. “We’ve got enough experience in the team to do that but we got undone from their first corner when we didn’t deal with the second ball and left Matt Green unmarked to score in the middle of the goal.

“He scored a second on the counter attack and we knew that’s how they would try and play too. It then became a bit of a desperate game in the second half.”

Luke Summerfield (foot) and Thompson (groin) were also replaced after suffering recurrences of previous injuries and Wilcox will be assessing their conditions before deciding whether he might bolster his ranks before the transfer window closes on Tuesday.

“We will have to look at Luke and Reece and decide whether we want to something, but we also have a big squad to choose from if we need to freshen things up,” the City manager reasoned.