York City extend win-less away run to 27 games following 2-0 defeat at Torquay

Nathan Blissett’s first-half brace – the home striker’s first goals of the season – proved sufficient to sink Jackie McNamara’s men on a disappointing afternoon at the seaside.

City got off to a sloppy start with skipper Simon Heslop dangling out a leg to concede a free kick that Luke Young curled over from 20 yards.

Kyle Letheren was then required to make a smart save to push Jamie Reid’s firm 15-yard attempt around his left-hand upright.

But, when the City keeper elected to punch rather than catch the subsequent home corner, the ball was worked back out to Young on the right and his excellent cross was headed powerfully in from seven yards by Blissett to give the Gulls an eighth-minute lead.

Moments later, Young delivered a free kick from a similar position with Sean McGinty getting the wrong side of Shaun Rooney but volleying wide.

The visitors, meanwhile, had the ball in the net with their first attack of the match on the quarter-hour mark when Connolly charged upfield before releasing Richard Brodie down the right.

Brodie went on to cut inside before unleashing a trademark, edge-of-the-box strike that thudded off home keeper Brendan Moore’s right-hand post with Connolly following up to net from the rebound only to be flagged offside.

Ex-Torquay midfielder Heslop then sliced well wide from 35 yards, while Courtney Richards volleyed out of the ground from the edge of the box at the other end.

After Connolly’s downward header had been routinely gathered by Moore from a right-wing Brodie cross, Blissett grabbed his second goal of the game just before the half-hour mark.

He volleyed in emphatically from seven yards after Dan Sparkes had got the better of Rooney at the far post following Richards’ right-wing cross.

The half ended with Heslop flashing an angled drive wide from 15 yards. City made a change for the restart with Connolly being replaced by Kaine Felix, while Tyler Walton was handed his senior debut shortly afterwards as a substitute for the injured Yan Klukowski.

But it was Kevin Nicholson’s men who continued to press forward with Sparkes racing clear after lifting the ball over Matt Fry only to see his rising 15-yard strike gathered at the second attempt by Letheren.

A ten-yard Joe Ward drive also deflected off target after hitting a floored Jack Higgins on the head and the same home player was denied from distance by Letheren’s finger tips.

For City, Scott Fenwick lifted a woeful 20-yard opportunity out of the stadium on 68 minutes, before Moore pulled off two good saves in quick succession to first push behind Felix’s low drive and then tip over Fry’s powerful header from Matty Dixon’s resulting right-wing corner. Felix remained the Minstermem’s most threatening outlet and his persistence on the right created a dangerous 83rd-minute, two-on-one situation, only for his cross to prove too high for Fenwick.

Another Felix centre – this time from the left – then saw Brodie volley over on the turn, but City’s last chance of a consolation saw Dixon smack a ten-yard volley against the crossbar after Higgins had won an aerial ball in the visitors’ box.