YORK City boss Russ Wilcox is eager to sign another striker before the start of the season with trialist Danny Johnson one possible target.

Ex-Cardiff City striker Johnson, 22, was a lively presence during City’s 1-0 pre-season defeat to Middlesbrough this afternoon – a game that attacking trio Jake Hyde, Emile Sinclair and Michael Coulson all missed due to injury.

The former Hartlepool youth-team forward is a free agent following his release by Cardiff, where he netted more than 20 times for the Championship club’s development team last term.

He was given his chance with the Bluebirds after plundering 59 goals in all competitions for Guisborough Town to finish top of the Northern League scoring charts the campaign before.

Johnson also scored during a loan spell with Tranmere last term and was farmed out to Stevenage too by the Welsh club.

He counts Real Murcia and Harrogate Town amongst his other former clubs and could get his chance with the Minstermen with Wilcox keen to strengthen his front-line regardless of the current injury problems.

The City chief said: “We need a fourth striker. I think it’s important to go with four, although I know we have got Michael Coulson who can play up there as well.

“I’ve said before that you cannot have enough strikers in the building and it’s the main area we needed to improve on from last season.”

Confirming that he is likely to take a longer look at Johnson, who was down on the City team sheet as Trialist A against Boro, Wilcox added that he would continue to run the rule over an unidentified half-time, central-defensive substitute – Trialist B.

“You need to look at trialists in games, as well as in training and we’re always looking so we’ll see what happens,” Wilcox added. “I thought the defender also performed well and we’ll take another look at them both next week.”

Coulson, Hyde and Sinclair, meanwhile, are not expected to feature in the friendlies against Darlington and Leeds that are away on Tuesday and at home on Wednesday respectively, with Wilcox revealing: “Michael Coulson’s getting very close and I’m hoping he can be involved against Sheffield Wednesday (on Saturday, July 18).

“I’m not too sure how long Jake and Emile will be. Jake has a niggle with his calf and Emile has had a bit of a recurrence with his thigh.

“It’s frustrating because you want a clean bill of health through pre-season and all three of them are offensive players but I won’t be pushing anybody and risking further problems. We are still four weeks away from the start of the season and that’s the one positive that they still have time on their side.”

While pre-season may have kicked off with a striker shortage, Wilcox was impressed by the manner in which summer signing Vadaine Oliver led the line against last season’s Championship play-off finalists.

He said: “We need that focal point up front and I thought Vadaine did well. He can run, as well as being a target man who can get hold of the ball for you.

“I think that was the missing link last season. The rest of the group was solid, but we needed that big target to give us a starting point for attacks.

“He gave us that against their first-team players and we won’t be coming up against that type of quality in League Two.”

Wilcox was encouraged, meanwhile, by the overall performance of his side in their first friendly outing.

“I was really pleased considering we only had seven days to prepare for the game,” he reasoned. “From a physical side, it was great to get everyone through 45 minutes looking good and strong.

“There was also some intelligent play against a team that were one game away from getting in the Premier League last season. We had the best chances to be honest but it’s not about the result.

“We got a foothold in the game after the first 15 minutes and it was nice to see us moving the ball around the pitch. In the second half, it was a fresh team and we introduced some young players who have come through the academy.

“We created some more good opportunities then and still looked solid. There was a tinge of disappointment from the goal because it came from our own goal kick when our starting positions have to be better.”

Boro suffered a blow when new signing Alex Baptiste was stretchered off with a suspected double leg break following a 50-50 clash with Johnson, but the latter was absolved of any blame with Wilcox saying: “It was unfortunate the game was tarnished by the injury to Alex Baptiste and it looked like a nasty one.

“The challenge was an accident. Their manager said that straight away and we wish the player well for his recovery.”

The City chief is also hoping that more home fans turn up for Wednesday’s clash against Leeds with 1,790 Boro fans accounting for an attendance of 2,798.

“I know it was a nice day, as well as the races being on and people might be on holiday, but I was slightly disappointed by the number of our fans at the game,” Wilcox admitted.

The Bootham Crescent boss went on to express his hope that the link-up with Middlesbrough that saw Brad Halliday spend the final three months of last season with the Minstermen can continue to benefit both clubs.

“I had a good chat with their manager regarding certain players that could interest us and, hopefully, we can make use of that contact again this season,” Wilcox said.