EDDIE Nolan is confident he can fit into York City's 3-5-2 formation despite being a full-back for the majority of his nine-year career.

The former Sheffield Wednesday defender and Republic of Ireland international made his full league debut for City as a midfield anchorman during Saturday's 3-0 victory at Newport.

Nolan was deputising in the role for injured skipper Russell Penn but received plaudits for his performance from manager Russ Wilcox, who used him in the same position as Scunthorpe boss.

The versatile 27-year-old also reckons he could operate as a wing-back for the Minstermen, whilst admitting: "I've usually always been used as a full-back in the past and I've never been at a club that plays with wing-backs, apart from on a couple of occasions. But I don't mind playing there.

"I've filled in as a midfielder a few times during my career but not on a regular basis. I'm happy to play there as well, though, especially if we keep winning 3-0."

With Penn to come back and 17-year-old Ben Godfrey having emerged as a first-team prospect this term, Nolan is aware of the competition for places in City's engine room.

He said: "There's a massive squad here, with everyone wanting to play, and Ben's a very good young player who has got a bit about him. If he keeps doing what he's doing, he can turn out to be a good player."

Nolan dovetailed in the middle of the park at Newport with James Berrett and Luke Summerfield, who both had hands in all three goals.

On the way the trio complemented each other, Nolan said: "They're both good footballers and, whilst it was hard at times against Newport because they were a bit of a long-ball team and it was in the air a lot, when we did manage to get the ball down, we looked good – especially on the counter-attack a few times."

Nolan is happy, meanwhile, that he has almost made a full recovery from breaking his hand six weeks ago during an innocuous training ground fall.

He revealed: "It's nearly back to normal. I've not played as much as I would have liked and the hand set me back a bit because I missed a few pre-season friendlies and a bit of the fitness work.

"But I'm playing at the minute and feel up to speed, so let's see how long that can continue. Hopefully I can kick on because I want to play as many games as I can, play as well as I can and help the team finish as high as possible and get in that top half of the table."

The Waterford-born utility man is now hoping Saturday's win will provide the team with a platform to move up the League Two standings from their current position of 17th, albeit only three points short of the play-off positions.

Nolan pointed out: "We're very solid at the back and we showed we are capable of scoring at Newport. They might be bottom but they only lost 3-2 to Leyton Orient, who are no mugs.

"Any team that scores three away from home deserves credit and everybody will take confidence from that into the next game now. If we keep playing like that, we will shoot up the table."

Having been a member of Wilcox's Scunthorpe side that won promotion from the same division in 2014, Nolan also reckons City will need to prove they can scrap for points – when not performing as well as they did in South Wales – this season if they are to target the higher reaches.

He explained: "You have to be good with the dirty side of the game to see out matches when you're not playing well. You can't always win 3-0 and I remember going to Newport with Scunthorpe and getting a 2-2 draw.

"It wasn't as good a result but it kept our long unbeaten run going and we ended up getting promoted. The gaffer has got promotion before from this division and knows what it takes, so it's up to us to take on board the tactics and try and do what we did at Newport on a regular basis."

Nolan went on to express his pleasure for striker Vadaine Oliver after he netted for the first time in City colours at the weekend.

He said: "We haven't scored as many as we would have liked this season but it was great that Vads got off the mark and, hopefully, he will kick on now. You could see from his reaction that he was more pleased than anyone.

"He's a big lad who's a handful for the big centre-halves at this level and he wins a lot of headers fighting against them for the long balls. He does a lot of the dirty, nasty work and is a big influence for us on the pitch."