YORK City’s full squad of players will be given 45-minute run-outs during Saturday’s first pre-season friendly at Shildon.

Manager Martin Gray will field different teams in each half for the match that has been switched to a 12.30pm kick-off to avoid a clash with England’s World Cup quarter-final contest against Sweden.

Summer signings Tom Allan, Jordan Burrow, Kallum Griffiths, Macaulay Langstaff, Russell Penn, Jake Wright and Wes York are all set to feature against the Northern League first division side with Gray declaring a clean bill of health for the warm-up match.

First-year professionals Flynn McNaughton, Josh Rogerson, Harry Thompson and Ryan Whitley will also join members of last season’s senior squad – Adam Bartlett, Hamza Bencherif, David Ferguson, Simon Heslop, Alex Kempster, Josh Law, Adriano Moke, Sean Newton, Jon Parkin, Dan Parslow and Vinnie Steels, along with the out-of-contract Clovis Kamdjo, who is being given the chance to earn himself a deal in coming weeks.

And, while the match might be City’s first since reporting back to Wigginton Road last Wednesday, Gray is determined that the Dean Street fixture will provide an early marker of what City supporters can expect from their team during 2018/19.

“I want us to show the togetherness that will be what we are about this season,” Gray reasoned. “Even though we have only been training for just over a week, I want to see what we’ve worked on come through straight away in terms of setting our stall out for what we are going to become.

“Everybody is available and we have had a good first week-and-a-half back. The lads have been great and some of their fitness levels have really impressed me.

“They came back in exceptional condition and have worked very hard in training. Everybody will get 45 minutes now at Shildon and there will be a big turnaround at half-time, because we’ll have all the senior players and young professionals there.”

England fan Gray also agreed with the change to the game’s scheduled time, adding: “It was the sensible thing to do for everybody and I don’t think there will be any other matches being played at 3pm on Saturday in this country.

“If the national team are in a World Cup quarter-final, why would you not want to see that? I was jumping around the house like a schoolboy for the Colombia game and we’ll be looking for somewhere to watch it together.”