WITH more than a quarter of the season played, York City have suffered their second-worst start to a Conference campaign.

Only Billy McEwan’s 2007/08 City side accrued fewer points after a dozen fixtures in non-League football’s top tier and the Scotsman ended up losing his job in mid-November.

McEwan’s side, reeling from the summer departures of key men Clayton Donaldson and Neal Bishop following a play-off, semi-final defeat to Morecambe, amassed just 11 points, which is one more than Jackie McNamara’s men have accumulated so far this term.

In comparison, meanwhile, the seasons whose starts led to the departures of Chris Brass, Colin Walker and Martin Foyle had the Minstermen on 14, 16 and 17 points respectively with 12 games played.

The best start to a National League campaign came in 2005/06 when McEwan’s exciting new team, built on a shoestring budget, doubled City’s current points tally at the corresponding benchmark.

That squad would ultimately miss out on a top-five place and finish eighth, although the next three best 12-match starts are filled, unsurprisingly, by the club’s play-off qualifiers – Martin Foyle’s 2009/10 team (22 points), McEwan’s 2006/07 outfit (21) and Gary Mills’ double Wembley-winning 2011/12 heroes (20).

York City’s best starts to a Conference season (after 12 games): 1) 2005/06 - 24 points; 2) 2009/10 - 22 pts; 3) 2006/07 – 21 pts; 4) 2011/12 – 20 pts; 5) 2010/11 – 17 pts; 6) 2008/09 – 16 pts; 7) 2004/05 – 14 pts; 8) 2016/17 – 12 pts; 9) 2007/08 – 11 pts.

Staying with statistics, following an analysis of National League tables over the last ten seasons, City are also now a 59/1 shot to reach the play-offs this season because Kidderminster, in 2012/13, are the only club to have gatecrashed the division’s top five, having collected 12 points or fewer by the end of September.

An amazing run of 25 wins from their final 29 league games went on to see Kiddy finish second that season and, from the other 58 sides in the same position as City or worse off at this stage of the calendar year, only five more teams – Oxford (seventh in 2008/09), Stevenage (eighth in 2006/07), Woking (ninth in 2013/14), Bath (tenth in 2010/11) and Kidderminster (tenth in 2006/07) – have gone on to secure a top-ten finish over the last decade.

City’s poor start to the season has also seen famous fan Guy Mowbray and double-winning Wembley squad member Jamie Reed question chairman Jason McGill’s continued support of underfire boss McNamara.

Match of the Day commentator Mowbray, who attends City games when his work commitments allow, took to Twitter following the 1-0 home defeat to Dover a fortnight ago and said: “Obviously not seen York today, so no comment on performance - only thoughts about football being results-based biz everywhere but #ycfc”

Following last weekend’s 2-0 loss at Barrow, Reed also took to the social media site after McNamara accused one unnamed player, who failed to pick up Danny Livesey from the corner that led to the opening goal, of not caring about the club as much as himself and owner McGill.

Reed, who scored 23 goals in 80 matches for the Minstermen and now plays for Bangor City in the Welsh Premier League, also called for a return to Bootham Crescent of 2012 chief Gary Mills, who is currently under pressure himself at league rivals Wrexham.

The 29-year-old forward posted: “I’m sorry but as a manager you cannot separate yourself from the players - good and bad. You stick together!

“Jason, go and get Millsy back #ycfc.”

Alex Whittle and Kaine Felix, meanwhile, are the joint-winners of The Press Player of the Month award for September.

Left-back Whittle moved level at the top with Felix after picking up two points as our second-highest rated player during last weekend’s 2-0 defeat at Barrow and receiving the same reward for winning our Twitter man-of-the-match poll.

The other points went to Press man-of-the-match Kyle Letheren (three) and our third-highest rated performer Aidan Connolly (one).

The Press Player of the Year standings: Connolly 14, Brodie 12, Whittle 9, Heslop 7, Higgins 7, Letheren 7, Felix 5, Kamdjo 3, Dixon 2, Rooney 2, Wright 2, Fry 1, Walton 1.

The September Press Player of the Month final standings: Felix 9, Whittle 9, Letheren 7, Connolly 4, Heslop 3, Higgins 3, Brodie 2, Johnson 2, Walton 1.

Goals: Brodie 5, Connolly 3, Fenwick 1, Heslop 1, Kamdjo 1, Klukowski 1, Own Goal 1, Wright 1.

Assists: Connolly 6, Felix 2, Wright 2, Fry 1, Heslop 1, Klukowski 1, Whittle 1.

Bad boys: Rooney five yellow cards; Brodie four yellow; Higgins, Wright both three yellow; Heslop one red; Clappison, Connolly, Dixon, Fenwick, Fry, Johnson, Kamdjo, Klukowski, Nti, Thompson, Whittle all one yellow.