YORK City caretaker boss Sam Collins has held no talks with the Bootham Crescent board about making his position permanent.

But the ex-Huddersfield and Hull defender is hoping to enhance his prospects by backing up bank-holiday Monday’s 2-0 home win against Blyth with further victories, ahead of Saturday’s trip to Hereford.

The Blyth result means Collins has taken four points from a possible six during his temporary tenure following the 0-0 draw at Brackley, with the club moving up to seventh in the National League North standings.

But, confirming that nothing had changed concerning the City vacancy, Collins added: “I’ve not had any conversations with anybody (about the job). I’m just getting my head down and getting on with it and the players have been great.

“I’m really, really enjoying it. It’s always better when you’ve had a couple of decent results and, if we keep winning games, it helps in terms of when a decision is made at some stage.”

Collins went on to admit it had not even crossed his mind to seek permission to bolster his inherited squad, reasoning: “I’ve not even asked that question, because I’m really pleased with the players, so I don’t want to look elsewhere.”

Midfielder Russ Penn, meanwhile, will be available for the Hereford clash despite his red card against Blyth, with suspensions not coming into effect until seven days after the misdemeanour in the sixth tier.

Collins hinted that Penn’s place was under threat, though, with Adriano Moke in contention for a starting slot having netted after coming off the bench during City’s last outing. “He (Penn) will be available if selected, because we played well on Saturday when he went off,” Collins pointed out. “Josh Law and Simon Heslop did great as well, and we’ve got to work out the right balance we will need for Hereford.

“We’ll pick the team we think will be the best one to win the game and it won’t be a case of the same starting XI every week, because different sides could suit us going into each game.”

Teenager winger Fergus McAughtrie will return to the squad after fatigue ruled him out against Blyth, following his promising debut at Brackley, with Collins declaring: “That’s really good for us.”

The 41-year-old coach also reckons a large playing surface at Edgar Street could suit his intended side.

“They are a tough team with lots of energy and they’ve done well over the last few seasons,” he said of Hereford’s threat. “They have a big pitch and are a fit team, so we’ve got to match that, and we’ve got a lot of quick players, so their pitch might suit us. The players are full of confidence and I’m looking forward to the game.”

Alex Kempster is undergoing a scan on his knee injury and Sean Newton will be missing again due to medial ligament damage, but he is now expected to be ready for the Minstermen’s following match – at home to Kidderminster on September 15 – after the postponement of the previous weekend’s fixture at Nuneaton during the international break.

That game will need to be re-arranged after former City midfielder Theo Wharton received a call-up to the St Kitts & Nevis side, along with Nuneaton team-mate Harrison Panayiotou, while Kairo Mitchell has made the Grenada squad.

Collins is disappointed to lose a fixture but will use the fortnight break to further instil his methods into the squad, saying: “It will give us the chance to put together a plan for the next two weeks and the opportunity to get through a hell of a lot of proper work with the players.

“There will be longer sessions, but I’ll make sure the players enjoy them too and everybody will be involved, not just the starting XI. I want to try and arrange a game as well for the end of next week to get more minutes into the players who have been playing and, more so, the ones who haven’t been, because game-time is really important for them.”

It will be a very different schedule to this week with Collins opting for two days’ rest after the bank-holiday exertions.

“We did a lot of video work during the early part of this week, because we’ve tried to save the players’ legs a bit,” he explained. “Some of the players did two lots of 90 minutes in three days so we shut the place down for a couple of days to give them time to recover.”