MANAGER Jackie McNamara expressed his delight after York City’s “nearly-man” Danny Galbraith grabbed a stoppage-time winner against Stevenage.

Substitute Galbraith’s 93rd-minute, edge-of-the-box strike secured three points for the Minstermen after Keith Keane had cancelled out Kenny McEvoy’s first-half opener for the hosts.

The goal came just seven days after Galbraith had struck the post to set up Luke Summerfield’s late equaliser in the 1-1 draw at Carlisle and McNamara said: “It was a great time to score and a fantastic finish from Danny.

“He has the ability to get into those positions, find space and go past players and I was delighted with his response coming on. He was the reason why we got the equaliser last week and he’s been different class since coming here.

“He’s been our nearly man, as I’ve said before, so I’m delighted he got the goal. We brought him on because we needed a bit more energy in midfield as we were starting to drop a bit deeper, although they were not threatening us before the long-distance strike.”

McNamara added that Galbraith might have made the first XI against Stevenage, but for an injury that had made him doubtful for the clash, “He only trained for the first time on Friday because he hurt his groin last weekend, so I felt it was too much to have him on from the beginning,” the City chief explained. “It was a similar story with James Berrett, but we look a lot stronger on the bench now.

“We’ve got a lot of important games in February and need everyone in the squad pushing for places. It was great to have subs coming on again and making an impact for us.”

McNamara went on to hail Dave Winfield’s goal-line clearance - also in added-on time - after Aaron O’Connor had lifted his shot over Scott Flinders. “That just shows how things can change in a game because, from a winning position, we were drawing and could have ended up losing, before going on to win and that clearance was just as important as scoring the goal for me,” the City boss pointed out. “It was an important win for us.

“I’d liked to have had it tied up a bit earlier and, if we hadn’t won, it would have been hard to take because we thoroughly deserved the three points. They didn’t hurt us much but their player had a great strike.” McNamara also felt his side were on the receiving end of some questionable refereeing decisions as second-half Michael Coulson and Vadaine Oliver efforts were ruled out.

“Vadaine’s goal was never offside and the foul given against Michael Coulson was very dubious,” the former Dundee United manager argued. “I didn’t feel the keeper had the ball in his hands.”

First-half marksman McEvoy, meanwhile, was employed in a more central role alongside Oliver and, explaining that decision, McNamara added: “We want to get him on the ball more and it can be hard to do that sometimes if he’s stuck out on the right.”

While results elsewhere meant the Minstermen remained bottom of the Football League, the City boss felt the result has left Stevenage, who have failed to win in eight matches, looking over the shoulders now.

“It’s not got us off the bottom but it’s dragged others to within our sights, not just those teams that were around us before,” the Bootham Crescent boss reasoned, “There are a lot of teams that we can catch.”

McNamara’s one disappointment was that keeper Scott Flinders and his back four did not get their first league shut-out since the start of September.

He said: “I feel for the defence and it was very frustrating for them that they didn’t manage to get that clean sheet, but the main thing was the three points.”

Loan signing Lubo Satka was an unused substitute for the Minstermen and fellow new recruit Derek Riordan watched from the stand with McNamara adding: “They have only just joined us and it was good for them to watch the side and how we play.”