Five Things We Learned from York City 1 Curzon Ashton 1

Departed City chief Martin Gray insisted that one of the biggest problems that needed remedying during a demoralising end to last term was the club’s over-reliance on Parkin. The 36-year-old veteran’s untimely knee injury completely derailed the side’s play-off quest as his team-mates failed to net in five of their final six fixtures when Parkin was sidelined for all but the last 37 minutes of the campaign.

Over the summer, Jordan Burrow, Jake Wright and Macaulay Langstaff were all recruited to enhance the club’s firepower. The first two are yet to open their City accounts and, while Langstaff has hit the target twice, both efforts have come when Parkin has been on the pitch.

In fact, all five of the Minstermen’s goals this season have come during the 200 minutes Parkin has been out on the field, compared to the 250 he has been sat on the bench, leading to respective strike-rates for the team of one goal every 40 minutes compared to none in four hours and ten minutes. Little has seemingly changed, therefore, in terms of the former Championship campaigner’s attacking potency and ability to occupy opposition defences at sixth-tier level.

His presence at Bootham Crescent, therefore, still needs to be embraced and fully utilised with Gray handing the Barnsley-born behemoth his first start of the season in what subsequently proved his final match in charge. Other forwards must still come to the party, though, in a manner that has not yet been evident when Parkin is out of the side.

2 The players proved unable to carry out Gray’s game-plan of forcing multiple set-plays

There is little wrong with any manager aiming to capitalise on set-piece situations. Their importance in the game at any level cannot be understated as England’s march to the World Cup semi-finals illustrated over the summer.

Against a Curzon team not renowned for their robust approach, even allowing for Cameron McJannet’s dismissal for two bookable offences, City were always unlikely to be awarded too many free kicks and only nine were ultimately conceded by the visitors. Perhaps more disappointing, though, was Gray’s team only won one corner all afternoon, given their manager’s desire to put the away team under aerial pressure in the penalty box.

Many managers, higher up the food chain than Gray, have looked to play quick balls down the flanks to win the flag kicks they feel will make their side’s superior height advantage count. But, despite two rapid wingers in Wes York and Adriano Moke being employed, the team could not act upon the former Darlington chief’s wishes.

The former did not stretch play in the same manner he had done against Stockport whilst, on the one occasion the latter threatened the byline, he ended up running the ball out of play.

3 A significant number of City supporters chose to stay away

The amount of home fans that turned up for Saturday’s game was 622 fewer than that present for the campaign’s first fixture at Bootham Crescent against Stockport. While Curzon Ashton are never going to be deemed as attractive an opponent as the Minstermen’s former Football League foes, that 23 per cent drop in home support did seem to suggest a degree of disillusionment among the Red-and-Blue faithful.

Saturday’s crowd also, perhaps more tellingly, enticed almost 300 fewer home fans than the gate for the 2-1 Alfreton defeat seven days earlier. City’s board will have considered the plunging gate receipts when making their decision on Gray’s future, as well as the waning faith of those present, as sporting director Dave Penney confirmed when discussing the half-time and full-time booing.

4 The team have been incapable of making the flying starts Gray has repeatedly demanded from them

Just like the old joke, anybody monitoring National League North results over the last 12 games might have been forgiven for thinking the club had changed their name to York City Nil. Another blank first-half scoresheet against Curzon Ashton meant the Minstermen had completed a dozen matches on the trot – or nine hours of football – without netting before the interval.

Gray’s pleas for his team to get on the front foot from the first whistle simply haven’t been acted upon by those he entrusted with starting shirts. In stark contrast, during the most successful spell of his Bootham Crescent tenure, Gary’s team managed to rack up nine first-half goals during the five straight victories after Christmas.

5 Kallum Griffiths’ deliveries at dead balls and in general play can become a rich source of goals

The capture from Spennymoor of Kallum Griffiths has looked a strong piece of transfer-market business by Gray. The standard of the 28-year-old right back’s balls into the box – both at set-pieces and in open play - has proven a welcome improvement to the Minstermen’s attacking armoury.

Against Curzon, he was once more the team’s most reliable provider of opportunities and was unlucky not to add to the assist he claimed for Joe Tait’s second goal at Ashton in midweek. It was Griffiths’ first-half free kick that teed up Hamza Bencherif for his disallowed header following a foul by the former Algerian under-20 international.

The former Sunderland academy player also sent in an inviting right-wing centre that Parkin later admitted he should have scored from with a stooping header. Tom Allan went on to miss the target after climbing to meet a Griffiths’ set-piece – the exact same source that led to Jake Wright’s late miss after Bencherif had got on the end of another inviting ball in from the ex-Northern League defender. While the wholesale raiding of troubled higher-division Gateshead smacked more of opportunism than comprehensive scouting, going on early evidence part-time converts Griffiths and Tait, from an upwardly-mobile rival, look to be the most astute summer signings, which could offer a valuable lesson ahead of future recruitment plans.