YORK City midfielder Russ Penn has been declared fit to start tomorrow’s home clash with Stockport.

Penn, 32, picked up an injury during the 1-0 defeat at Chorley in Saturday’s National League North curtain-raiser and was withdrawn after an hour.

But he has recovered in time to take on the Hatters with City chief Martin Gray confirming: “Russ Penn has trained and we’ll see how he is before deciding on the team.”

Following the weekend’s losing start in Lancashire, Gray has now challenged his team to collect six points from back-to-back home matches, with Alfreton the next visitors to Bootham Crescent on Saturday.

He is also looking forward to a “high-tempo” encounter against Stockport as the two clubs with the division’s biggest fan bases do battle.

“You want to play in the big games, because that’s what football is all about,” Gray reasoned: “It will be a match between two fantastic clubs with great pasts and will have a Football League feeling.

“Neither should be at this level, but they have had similar problems over the last four or five years and I believe both will be pushing for promotion at the end of the season. We’ve watched them during their last two games and they have come out flying for both.

“They got three early goals on Saturday, as we should have done if we had taken our great chances and been awarded the two penalties, so it should be a high-tempo game and a good one.

“We’ve got two big matches coming up now at Bootham Crescent and we know what we’ve got to do. We have the mindset of taking maximum points from both games.”

Gray has likened the meeting with title favourites Stockport to last term’s home clash against eventual champions Salford, who were seen off 1-0 in February courtesy of Aidan Connolly’s 27th-minute goal.

He added: “It’s a similar game to the Salford match when the crowd gave us a big lift and we came out and won the match after starting very well. I hope the crowd can give us the same kind of lift, but know we’ve got to make sure we give them something to cheer about by showing plenty of energy.”

The Salford game also represented one of three clean sheets City have managed during Gray’s 11-month reign, with shut-out experts Chorley offering a lesson in that respect at the weekend.

But the City boss insists that this term’s back line is capable of matching the Magpies’ defensive resilience, saying: “I’m sure Chorley’s team-talk at half-time was we are winning 1-0, so let’s just defend it and we have enough experience to do that as well.

“Hopefully, the 90 minutes we got into Joe Tait will have been good for his fitness levels, because he struggled like hell for the last ten or 15, but that side of his game will get better and stronger and he brings a lot of organising and communication to the group.”

Gray went on to suggest he could make changes to his starting XI and, despite Stockport kicking off with a 5-1 defeat of FC United of Manchester, he is anticipating that visiting manager Jim Gannon might follow suit.

“You always take an opportunity to look at the squad and I’m sure Stockport will be doing the same, knowing Jim,” Gray ventured. “Even though they are coming off a victory, he’s never shy of changing formation or personnel.”