AIDAN Connolly is likely to be missing for York City’s home match with high-fliers Tranmere on Tuesday night.

The 21-year-old attacker, who has been the Minstermen’s star performer this term, suffered a hamstring injury that saw him fail to restart the second half during this afternoon’s 2-0 defeat at Torquay.

It is understood that the damage is not serious, but City chief Jackie McNamara is unlikely to risk causing a greater problem by rushing him back.

Yan Klukowski is also doubtful for the Bootham Crescent clash and is back in the treatment room after suffering calf trouble at Plainmoor following his return to the team after a one-match absence due to a thigh strain.

On the pair’s setbacks, McNamara said: “Aidan got a bit of a bang in the first half and was feeling his hamstring. I don’t want him to be out for any longer so we took precautions and brought him off.

“Tranmere might come too soon as well. We don’t know the extent of the damage to Yan’s calf, but he’s unlikely to be involved either.”

McNamara’s men go into the Tranmere contest eight points behind their third-placed visitors after Nathan Blissett’s brace extended City’s run without an away win to 27 matches with the ex-Dundee United boss insisting his team must adopt a clinical mentality on the road and start games better to bring that sorry sequence to an end.

“We had enough chances to get ourselves back in the game after conceding two poor goals when we didn’t deal with crosses into our box and the second balls,” he reasoned. “We started slowly and a bit nervy and their big lad up front caused us problems, but their keeper made some good saves and we hit the bar and post.

“Some things went against us again, but we’ve got to make sure we’re not relying on officials and have only got ourselves to blame because they were more clinical than us. I thought we deserved something from the game, but it’s so important not to concede anything early on and we were slow to get out of our area for the first goal before giving their lad a free header.

“We’ve got to get the away form right by making sure we start games properly and take our chances.”

City fell behind on eight minutes after Kyle Letheren had elected to punch away a corner rather than catch it, but the ex-Celtic skipper refused to hold his keeper culpable for the goal, saying: “He made one punch all game in the first half and it cleared the area when I thought we were on top of him and there were a lot of bodies in there.”

Kaine Felix could now be handed his second start in City colours on Tuesday night after impressing as Connolly’s half-time replacement with McNamara adding: “I thought Kaine was excellent when he came on.

“He showed real pace and energy, but he had the chance to square to Scott Fenwick for a tap-in and it’s situations like that where we need to have that clinical mentality away from home.”

Tyler Walton, meanwhile, was given his senior debut at the age of 17 after Klukowski pulled up early in the second period.

On his display, McNamara reasoned: “He came on in difficult circumstances and was a bit nervous to start off with before growing into the game. It’s nicer to bring people on for their debut when you’re in the lead and comfortable, but it’s a good experience for the lad and he’ll get stronger.”

With on-loan Sheffield United striker Jake Wright missing due to a foot injury, Scott Fenwick was also recalled to the starting XI for the first time in six matches.

Summing up his return, McNamara said: “He didn’t get many chances and the one that he did went over the bar after he got it out of his feet. He would have probably scored if Kaine had got the ball to him in the second half, but we didn’t really give their centre halves a tough match in the way their striker did ours.

“We didn’t stretch them or get in behind and are still relying too heavily on Richard Brodie.”

Five-goal top scorer Brodie went on to move to within another booking of incurring a one-match suspension having been shown a yellow card after the final whistle for remonstrating with referee Constantine Hatzidakis, leaving McNamara to bemoan: “You can’t let your frustration get on top of you like that.”