1 City’s record against lowly teams continues to be lamentable

Matt Dodd’s 89th-minute equaliser for Leamington means no side in National League North has now dropped more points against the team’s bottom-five teams than York City. Despite completing the double over a sorry North Ferriby team currently 25 points adrift at the bottom of the table, City have now thrown away 16 against the four teams directly above the Humbersiders – Tamworth, Gainsborough, Southport and Leamington.

Indeed, but for unlikely hero James Gray’s last-minute winner against Southport, City would not have defeated any of that modest quartet in eight contests - a statistic that beggars belief given the comparative budget sizes. To provide some context, top-two teams Salford and Harrogate have only given up five and four points respectively against the lowly quintet, while 16th-placed Alfreton have taken 24 points from a possible 30 in fixtures with the same opponents, which has been the cornerstone of their successful battle against relegation.

There can be little excuse for such sorry City results, especially when the team have beaten five of the eight sides above them in the standings. Players have, in most cases, been far too lethargic against those sides occupying the lower reaches when, with no disrespect to Leamington – they deserve every respect for competing in the sixth tier given their resources – the Midlanders should have been ruthlessly despatched in both meetings between the two clubs this term.

York Press:

2 Maintaining focus during the final throes of games is a problem

Complacency and a lack of concentration against bottom-five outfits Leamington and Tamworth has also seen SEVEN points tossed away in the final three minutes of all four matches between the clubs. October’s away match at Leamington was an incredibly one-sided affair with City leading 2-0 until the side lost focus at two set-pieces and unbelievably contrived to surrender victory as Liam Canavan struck on 88 minutes.

Similarly, the tired Brakes, who had beaten Chorley less than 48 hours earlier, had not managed a single second-half goal attempt prior to Canavan swinging a hopeful ball into the box for Dodd to net after outjumping David Ferguson at the far post.

Daryl Knights, meanwhile, netted on 90 and 89 minutes respectively as Tamworth secured a 3-2 win and 1-1 draw against the Minstermen this season. The addition of those seven points would, at the very least, ensure that the Minstermen would be going into this weekend’s last programme of regular season fixtures level on points with Chorley and Spennymoor in the battle for the last two play-off places.

Instead, Martin Gray’s men only have the forlorn hope that Spennymoor will fail to defeat either safe Telford or relegated Ferriby at home to ensure City still have a rank outsiders’ chance of claiming the final play-off spot at Brackley on Saturday.

York Press:

3 City’s fans have shown greater loyalty than in several past Football League seasons

Despite the fare on offer as the club operated at their lowest-ever level, City’s long-suffering supporters steadfastly continued to come through the Bootham Crescent turnstiles. A turnout of 2,350 for this final home fixture meant the average Bootham Crescent league gate of 2,755 for the club’s first campaign of regionalised football since 1929 was almost 200 higher than last season’s National League figure.

The number also beats 13 other campaigns, including during the Football League eras of the late 1970s/early 1980s and late 1980s/early 1990s. That represents a remarkable level of loyalty despite the growing disconnect this term between fans and club, which culminated in the departure of chairman Jason McGill and chief executive Jackie McNamara during March.

New board member Dave Penney appears genuinely keen to establish greater unity during the final season at Bootham Crescent and, while crowd scenes have grown increasingly fractious as play-off aspirations imploded in recent weeks, the fact that so many still care deeply and have not walked away must be regarded as a positive and never taken for granted.

York Press: PRIZE GUY: Jon Parkin

4 Jon Parkin is probably the most unchallenged Player of the Year winner in the club’s history

He might not have scored since the second Saturday of 2018 and been sidelined since mid-March following knee surgery, but there was truly only one contender for City’s Clubman of the Year award this season, which was presented with understated fanfare before Saturday’s game. A return of 25 goals by mid-January looked like Parkin might become the first during the club’s professional era to hit 40 in a campaign, albeit at the lowest-ever level.

Injury wrecked that opportunity but Parkin’s value to the team can still be seen by the reality that his goals were worth 19 points to the club – one more than Salford’s leading marksman Jack Redshaw, whose club won the title this weekend and are 30 clear of the team that were supposed to be their nearest rivals, according to pre-season bookmakers’ odds. In the former Championship campaigner’s absence, no City player has emerged as a worthy challenger for Player of the Year consideration or come close to filling the goalscoring void.

The Minstermen’s biggest recruitment challenge over the summer will now be tackling the club’s total reliance on a heavyweight 36-year-old with a dodgy knee.

York Press:

5 The Minstermen remain susceptible to aerial crosses into their box

There was a sense of deja-vu as Dodd leapt higher than Ferguson to head in a left-wing cross, with Mark Beck having escaped the attentions of Dan Parslow in the previous home match against Harrogate following a delivery from an almost identical position. Furthermore, it was the fourth headed goal that City have conceded during the last ten games following uncontested balls into the box.

Connor Brown was beaten by Dan Bradley in the air from a right-wing cross during last month’s 2-1 defeat at Kidderminster a couple of weeks after former City defender Tom Allan had given Hamza Bencherif the slip far too easily to head Alfreton to a 1-1 draw at Bootham Crescent. The goals amount to another five points tossed away by the Minstermen after, firstly, either giving away a cheap free kick or failing to cut off the danger at its source, for which Jonny Burn was reprimanded against Leamington.

Such sloppiness has then been compounded by the team’s inability to win their next battles against Dodd, Beck, Bradley and Allan. Desire, organisation and communication could have certainly been better in each scenario.