YORK City boss Martin Gray is excited by the prospect of a “fantastic turnout” for tomorrow night’s marquee home friendly against Championship neighbours Leeds United.

The Elland Road club took 1,161 fans to Forest Green for the start of their warm-up schedule last night with goals from Kemar Roofe and Luke Ayling securing a 2-1 triumph.

But certain senior players did not feature in Gloucestershire and goalkeeper Jamal Blackman and midfielder Lewis Baker, who have both joined on loan from Chelsea, are set to make their first appearances in Leeds colours, while former City striker Ryan Edmondson is also expected to return to Bootham Crescent with the visitors.

Former Argentina and Chile boss Marcelo Bielsa only took a squad of 15 to Forest Green and, with other friendlies line up against Southend on Sunday, Oxford (July 24), Guiseley (July 26) and Las Palmas (July 29) he is expected to take every opportunity to have a good look at his new charges.

On the visit of the three-time English champions, Gray said: “They’re playing six friendlies in 12 days, so they’ve got a really big workload and I believe they will be bringing a very strong senior team. Around 50 per cent of the players that started last season played at Forest Green, so I’d expect the others to play against us and that will be a great challenge.

“We’re still looking at different players and different formations, but it’s a Yorkshire derby, which is great and I’m sure there will be a fantastic turnout, which is really exciting. We’ve got to put on a well-organised performance because, what comes with Leeds, is unbelievable quality.

“We’ve got to have spells in the game where we have a go at them, get in their faces and play at a high tempo, but we’ve also got to be really disciplined and play how we did against Bradford when we were hard to break down.

“It will be the same in our league games. You can’t always dominate games and we’ve got to be heard to beat by having the right mentality.”

Defender Tom Allan (knee) is the only player unavailable for the match, as Dan Parslow has recovered from his infected toe and, with two friendlies left to play before the National League North curtain-raiser at Chorley on Saturday, August 4, Gray admitted he is starting to formulate an idea of who is first XI will be for that Lancashire contest.

“We’re getting close to what we think will start in that first match, but we’ve got 12 games in the first eight weeks of the season, so it’s not all about who is in the 11 for Chorley,” he added. “We’ve got Stockport at home three days later and everybody is part of what we are going to do and they’ll all play a massive part.”

Out-of-contract midfielder Clovis Kamdjo and trialist Lee Hulme remain at the club and have been joined by a couple more players hoping to earn deals at Bootham Crescent for 2018/19 with the City boss revealing: “We’re looking at one or two more, who we have pencilled in to play in a behind-closed-doors game next week when some of the younger pros will get more minutes as well.”