YORK City manager Martin Gray has challenged his team to emulate last season’s National League North champions Salford by bouncing back from the disappointment of an opening-day defeat.

The Minstermen lost 1-0 at Chorley following Adam Blakeman’s first-half goal, but a bullish Gray insisted his team would improve, starting against title favourites Stockport at Bootham Crescent on Tuesday night.

Gray helped mastermind a shock victory at Salford when his then Darlington team kicked off the 2017/18 campaign with a 2-0 triumph courtesy of a brace from David Ferguson, who was an unused City substitute this afternoon and, placing the Chorley loss in context, Gray reasoned: “After that result last season, Salford went on a terrific run and just got stronger.

“We’ve now got to do that by reproducing our first-half performance against Chorley for 90 minutes against Stockport. We wanted to get off to a good start and we had a great pre-season, which people might feel means nothing, but it will do during the next ten months because it’s only the first game and we will get better.

“Hopefully, our fans saw what we tried to do and that the new players did well.”

Gray felt the officials cost his side during the opening 45 minutes, arguing that Wes York and Alex Kempster should have both been awarded spot kicks.

But the former Sunderland midfielder also admitted his players resorted to too many long balls after the break.

Providing his overall assessment, Gray said: “The first half was the start to the season we wanted but we didn’t get any protection from the referee because we should have had two blatant penalties. He told me at half-time that he had made a mistake for the second one, but you can’t make mistakes and it’s easy to say that.

“For the rest of the half, our performance was good and, if we get the penalties and score one of our chances, we could have been 3-0 up before their goal. We were really dominant and Alex Kempster should have scored when the ball was played back to him and he completely missed it.

“They then got the goal from one of the first shots they’d got away from their left back. We said in the match report that he gets his shots off and scores goals, but we didn’t close him down on the edge of the box.

“Then, in the second half, we weren’t brave enough on the ball and didn’t keep it. We went too direct and our full backs’ first thought was to go long to the forwards, but our midfielders also needed to give some support by demanding the ball off them.

“Their keeper still had to make an unbelievable save from Sean Newton though and we ended the game having hit the woodwork twice, so there were plenty of positives.”

Four players – York, Kallum Griffiths, Joe Tait and Jordan Burrow – were all given their first competitive City starts at Victory Park, while fellow new recruit Macaulay Langstaff featured from the bench and Jake Wright and Russ Penn made their second full debuts for the club.

Commenting on the summer signings’ contributions, Gray added: “Jake Wright was a bundle of energy and made a nuisance of himself, robbing them of possession two or three times. I’d have liked to see him score rather than hit the post when he went through.

“I thought he took an extra touch when, against us for Harrogate last season in a similar situation, he just fired it in the far corner but he did well, as did Macaulay Langstaff when he came on and they will make us better. Russ Penn got a knock on his lower spine after about ten or 15 minutes and looked a bit stiff, so we brought (Adriano) Moke on after an hour to try and give us energy from midfield, but that didn’t work as well we wanted, because we ended up going too direct.

“Joe Tait got a bit of cramp because he’s not had a full pre-season like the rest of the players but, hopefully, he will recover in time for Tuesday night, which is a massive game and I’m hoping for a fantastic crowd.”