CHRIS Carruthers lamented York City being unable to “ride the storm” after Neil Barrett gave them a shock first half lead at the Britannia Stadium.

The 26-year-old winger said the Minstermen shot themselves in the foot following the 22nd minute Barrett header which briefly threatened to provide the shock of the FA Cup third round.

Carruthers was delighted with the start City made and added Martin Foyle’s men were well aware they may get a chance from set-pieces.

“I think it’s a good learning curve for everybody,” he said. “We started ever so well. I think they were a bit on the ropes after the first 25 minutes. Once we got the goal, we shot ourselves in the foot a bit really. We got ahead and it was a bit strange to get pegged back straight away.

“It was a good moment, Baz (Barrett) scoring the goal. You just want to regroup and be solid then and see out the next ten minutes because you are vulnerable after you have just scored and a lot of teams do concede.

“But we couldn’t ride the storm. We knew about their long throw, but we just didn’t deal with it very well."

On City’s goal, Carruthers added: “It was a good delivery and Baz just managed to get across the near post and get a flick on it. We knew our set-pieces would be important and a good chance to score from.”

Carruthers provided an insight into the situation on the team bus as City, and many of their supporters, were stuck in miles of tailbacks on both the M62 and M6 – forcing the scheduled kick off to be delayed half an hour.

“It’s not an ideal situation but we managed to get a decent warm up,” Carruthers added. “We did a warm up here. We just made it in time. There’s not a lot you can do really on the bus to be honest, we were just hoping we could get there in time so the game could be on.

“We desperately wanted the game to be on. With the traffic, it couldn’t be helped in the end, but a game like this lifts itself."

In his press conference, Foyle announced Carruthers had agreed to sign an 18-month deal – and the City player confirmed he was keen to stay at Bootham Crescent.

“We are trying to sort things out,” he added. “I want to stay here and I think we have got an excellent chance of getting promoted. That’s the next thing really, just to work hard on the training pitch and get ready for tomorrow night (at Altrincham).”