JACKIE McNamara has issued a plea for York City supporters to judge him next season after relegation from the Football League was confirmed following a 3-0 defeat at Accrington Stanley.

Former Harrogate Railway striker Josh Windass’ brace, following a first-half effort from on-loan Reading winger Tariqe Fosu, saw Accrington take a step closer to automatic promotion from Sky Bet League Two.

Newport’s 1-1 draw at Luton meant the outcome at the Crown Ground would have been immaterial for the visitors anyway.

The match still represented another miserable afternoon, though, for the 273 City fans who travelled across the Pennines but McNamara, who succeeded Russ Wilcox at the start of November and has not yet tasted victory on the road as City chief, has asked for the time to make his mark in the transfer market over the summer.

He said: “The manager takes responsibility for everything, but I did things to try and help us over the line and I always knew staying in the League would be the difficult part. We had to make a lot of loan signings but, now, it will be about the rebuilding process and, hopefully, that’s what I will be judged on.”

Only six players – Scott Flinders, James Berrett, Matty Dixon, Vadaine Oliver and Jake Hyde – are under contract at Bootham Crescent next season.

Of that group, Flinders and Berrett were in the starting XI at Accrington while Dixon and Thompson were named as substitutes.

Along with Hyde and Oliver, Thompson’s City future could be in doubt, however, with McNamara openly critical of the attacking trio in recent times.

He even played centre-back Dave Winfield up front for the entirety of the second half, while leaving Thompson and fellow centre-forward Derek Riordan on the bench.

The City boss is now expected to draw up his retained list after the season is completed with a home game against Bristol Rovers on Saturday and a final-day trip to Morecambe the following weekend.

“We’ve got a lot of decisions to make on a lot of players over the next few weeks and it’s important we get recruitment right over the summer,” the former Scotland international admitted. “I want players who will represent me as a manager and this football club.

“They need to show they will fight until the last minute and have the passion to never give anything up.”

McNamara also suggested that, along with ability, he will be attaching equal importance to potential signings’ attitude and mentality, after claiming that the current City squad possessed more quality than teams who will finish above them in the League Two standings.

He added: “The threat of relegation has been hanging over us for a few weeks and our game wouldn’t have made any difference with the other result, but it’s still disappointing. Relegation is not what we wanted, but we have paid the price for not being good enough in certain games and not holding on to leads by letting points go to waste through sloppiness and a lack of concentration.

“There are so many things you could point to that have cost us, but I don’t believe we’re the worst or second-worst side in the league. The players have got ability.

“I can see that. The Accrington game showed the weaknesses in the team though.

"We don’t win enough one-v-one battles and it all comes down to having the mentality to concentrate and see things through.”

McNamara went on to moan that Accrington fought harder and looked fitter than his side, confessing: “The best team won and you could see why they are where they are in the league, whereas we didn’t have enough players on their game.

“Accrington’s energy levels were higher and they looked stronger than us in certain areas. We got what we deserved and to turn in a performance like that, after how we played on Tuesday night, sums up the season.

“There was a lot of fear in our game that wasn’t there against Portsmouth, but we’ve not been relegated because of this result. The supporters have been let down again and there must be some fight and pride against Bristol now.”

On the decision to employ Winfield in attack, McNamara explained: “We put Dave up there to try and go for it because everything had been coming back off our front three in the first half and we didn’t cause them enough problems. We wanted Dave to win some headers because we were putting ourselves under pressure when the ball didn’t stick up there.”

Winger Josh Carson, meanwhile, was handed a second chance at left back following his surprise recall in the position during Tuesday night’s 3-1 home victory over Portsmouth.

The former Northern Ireland international was given problems by Accrington attacker Piero Mingoia and, summing up his display, McNamara said: On Tuesday night, he did well but, in this game, he looked tired.

“Their winger had a lot of joy against him and put a lot of crosses in. Maybe that’s because he hasn’t played a lot.”