YORK City boss Russ Wilcox believes striker Vadaine Oliver can now flourish after opening his account for the club.

Oliver scored the final goal in a convincing 3-0 victory at Newport, ending a personal drought of ten games or 16 if his six pre-season outings for the Minstermen are included.

The City chief added that his 59th-minute strike, following on from earlier James Berrett and Reece Thompson efforts, was the reward for a series of selfless displays since his summer switch from Crewe.

He also believes Oliver should aim to realise his ambition of one day playing in the Championship, saying: “I think that will be a key goal for Vadaine psychologically.

“It’s got him off the mark and the fact that he’s up and running now will take some pressure off him. As a centre forward, you want to score goals.

“You get judged on them during your career and at the end of it, but he’s also a terrific lad who has been doing a lot of hard work for the team. He puts himself about, wins first balls and helps us defend corners.

“As staff, we’ve just been trying to help him keep believing in himself and telling him that the cream always rises to the top because he’s a good player. Hopefully, he will flourish now.

“He wants to play in the Championship and I want to hear players say that. He’s only 23 and you don’t want to stay in League Two if you can fulfil your potential.

“There aren’t many target men around with pace, but Vadaine is quick and we’re trying to get him to run in behind defences more too. It doesn’t always have to be Reece (Thompson) doing that. He can do it as well.”

Oliver had to be substituted later in the game when he picked up a knock but Wilcox expects him to shrug that off in time to figure during the trip to Stevenage a week today.

“He took a bang in the ribs but I’m sure it won’t hurt as much now he’s scored a goal,” Wilcox smiled.

The Bootham Crescent boss argued that the players had also answered questions concerning the potency of this season’s squad following a series of missed chances in recent outings.

“I’m delighted because it was a very professional performance away from home,” he pointed out. “They’ve been struggling but they’ve had some tough games against Leyton Orient, Wolves and Swindon so we weren’t reading too much into that.

“We’ve taken a bit of criticism for not scoring, so to get two from our strikers and one from the midfielder who plays behind them is pleasing. We also spoke about the importance of getting more goals at half-time because we didn’t do that against Mansfield and lost the game and the players responded to that.”

Having conceded five goals in their previous two matches, Wilcox also praised his defence for keeping their third clean sheet of the campaign.

He added: “Our back three, or five if you include the wing-backs, were excellent and Eddie Nolan did a sound job in front of them. He kept things simple and passed the ball well.

“Scotty (Flinders) also pulled off a terrific save at the end to keep the clean sheet we deserved.”

Wilcox went on to applaud the 143 City supporters who made the long trip to South Wales for the early kick-off with some leaving their homes as early as 4am “The support at this club is outstanding,” he enthused. “When you think of the travelling that has had to be done over the last fortnight going to Exeter, Swansea and Newport, that’s an incredible amount of miles to put in and the players and staff appreciate that backing.”

Skipper Russell Penn did not feature against Newport due to a foot problem that has been troubling him since the start of the season.

The armband was subsequently given to Dave Winfield with Nolan handed his full league debut as the team’s midfield anchorman.

Wilcox was pleased with the ex-Northern Ireland international’s display but is hoping Penn will give him a selection dilemma next weekend.

“Russ has had a difficult few weeks and has been in discomfort for a while but has wanted to play because he’s that type of pro,” Wilcox explained. “He’s been having injections and periods of rest when he’s not been on the training ground but it probably affected his performance against Mansfield and we have a squad there to utilise.

“That’s not Eddie Nolan’s preferred position but he did play there for me at Scunthorpe and I thought he did an excellent job. He won’t cover as much ground as Russ but he broke up play and was always in the right areas.

“He’s an organiser who plays with intelligence and sits in there more but, hopefully, Russ will be fit again for Stevenage and can give me a headache. He will also be as pleased as anybody that we got a result.”

Elsewhere, City have been drawn at home to Doncaster in the second round of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in a match due to be played in the week commencing Monday, October 5.

Winger Anthony Staker, meanwhile, scored a penalty for Grenada in their 3-1 World Cup qualifying first leg home defeat to Haiti.

The deciding leg in Haiti will take place on Tuesday