YORK City boss Jackie McNamara apologised to supporters following an “embarrassing” 6-1 defeat at Gateshead.

The Minstermen capitulated after levelling the scores in first-half stoppage time through Richard Brodie’s penalty.

Salt was also rubbed into the wounds with ex-Minstermen Ryan Bowman (two) and Jamal Fyfield getting on the scorehseet, along with former Bootham Crescent trialist Danny Johnson.

Subs Toby Ajala and Sam Jones also netted with McNamara saying: “I want to say sorry to the fans because the scoreline was embarrassing, as was our defending in the second half after getting a lifeline with the penalty. We weren’t strong enough to deal with them and looked vulnerable.

“There were too many mistakes that got punished and a lot of the goals were sloppy and gifted to them, which was unlike us, because we’ve looked solid up to now, but we crumbled at 3-1. I’ll take responsibility for that after changing shape to 4-4-2, but we didn’t follow our runners all night.

York Press:

“I said a lot in the dressing room that I can’t repeat and it’s a massive wake-up call for us. We didn’t compete physically with their front three, but now we must turn our attention to Forest Green on Saturday and it’s all about character.

“We must come out fighting. I didn’t think there were many leaders out there and that has to be put right.

“I saw the captain going in for tackles, but a few players went into their shells.”

The Minstermen could will need to assess Matt Fry’s fitness ahead of the trip to the New Lawn after he was replaced before the half-hour mark at the International Stadium having suffered a dead leg and bang to the head trying to prevent Bowman from opening the scoring.

Clovis Kamdjo was also substituted at half-time with McNamara unhappy with his performance.