Five Things We Learned From York City's 1-0 home defeat to Aldershot

No previous manager, under the JM Packaging regime, has survived the kind of reaction that McNamara and his team were subjected to at the weekend. At clubs up and down the country and Bootham Crescent in the past, the board, if not the manager, would have decided his position was untenable, as fans openly expressed their frustration with the most derogatory and damning chants imaginable.

But McNamara, who had stated that he would consider his position following the 2-0 defeat to Barrow seven days earlier, came out fighting and, despite the first team’s fortunes, reiterated afterwards that his job remains to revive the whole club. Chairman Jason McGill has previously spoken of the need for a “revolution” at the club, involving a complete overhaul of philosophies and work practices.

The reinstatement of the reserve team was a welcome move as part of that grand scheme but, with the impact of any other changes difficult to quantify perhaps until several years down the line, many are now questioning whether the new approach is really worth it, if it means such detriment to the first team and will be looking for any firm evidence of what it actually entails. After all, the previous infrastructure proved sufficient when Nigel Worthington reached the Sky Bet League Two play-offs, 18 months prior to McNamara’s arrival.

Despite the current chief’s insistence that the club had relied predominantly on experience during four fruitless years trying to preserve their League status, that Worthington team, just like McNamara’s side now, also placed ample trust in untried youngsters, who needed to be developed on the job, such as Nick Pope, Ben Davies, Adam Reed, Wes Fletcher, Josh Carson, Ryan Bowman, Ryan Brobbel and Will Hayhurst.

Another argument put forward is that the academy needed a revamp prior to McNamara’s arrival. Yes, more home-grown talent might have been nurtured over the past decade, but it is the same production line that cultivated last season’s League Two Apprentice of the Year Ben Godfrey, who received the award following his six-figure move to Norwich.

Of other modern-era graduates, David Stockdale has made England squads, played in the Premier League and Europe, while Byron Webster and Jamie Hopcutt went on to become Championship and Swedish top-flight regulars respectively. While the youth team’s results were poor last season, partly due to Godfrey’s promotion to the first team, it’s not too long ago either that current coach Steve Torpey was leading the under-18s to a runners-up finish behind Hull. It is debatable that the foundations of the club, with McGill’s support, did require wholesale surgery and, such talk makes a mockery of achievements, not in the too distant past, even if the Minstermen couldn’t fulfil their current manager’s ambition of reaching League One. Everything, as ever, is dictated by player recruitment and success at first-team level, which has not been good enough since Worthington had a poor close-season in the transfer market.

After all, history tells us it is harder to attract the region’s next generation of footballers to a non-League outfit, even before battling the traditional difficulties of preventing the likes of Leeds and the north-east clubs spiriting the best talent away. Even the emergence of i2i in the city who, excuse the pun, nobody sees eye to eye with at Bootham Crescent, has proven troublesome with graduates from their academy having been placed at Leeds, Doncaster and even Fleetwood this year.

In summary, the first-team manager’s job is such a time-consuming role that others must oversee any revolution behind the scenes, if that is indeed what was ever needed. McNamara has suggested his chief motive for not walking away from the challenge is to reward McGill’s loyalty, which is increasingly coming under scrutiny.

He is dead right in this respect. The chairman who, after the Supporters’ Trust saved the club has covered decade-long losses as the interminable community stadium saga continues to drag on, deserves better.

With that in mind, nothing less than victories this month over Guiseley, Braintree, Curzon Ashton and Southport, who are all poorer literally and in league standing than the Minstermen, will be acceptable.

2 City’s defence are struggling to play out from the back

McNamara’s intentions to build moves from defence is laudable, but not commensurate with his signing of two centre backs Jack Higgins and Matt Fry, who played for direct sides in Stalybridge and Braintree respectively last season. Possession is regularly being ceded to the opposition in dangerous areas and, while replacing personnel, given the size of his 28-man squad and the other merits of Higgins and Fry, is probably not an option, changing tact might be, with a greater emphasis on playing football in the opposition’s half.

3 Clovis Kamdjo looks comfortable at centre back

Distribution is not Kamdjo’s strongest suit either, but his anticipation and aerial ability helped settle a defence that restricted to the visitors to just one shot in the second half following his switch from midfield. The ex-Barnet utility man’s concentration has let him down in the past but, if he addresses that, City could have an alternative option in the heart of their defence.

4 Scott Fenwick did not take the chance he was given by McNamara

The former Hartlepool striker was preferred ahead of a jaded Richard Brodie, but did not get the better of centre-backs Will Evans and Callum Reynolds all afternoon, other than throwing one to the ground in frustration on his way to conceding the game’s most blatant free kick.

5 Kyle Letheren has brought some calmness to the goalkeeping position

The ex-Blackpool keeper has not been over worked in too many games since his arrival, but has largely looked assured when called upon and is not weighed down by the past failings that seemed to take their toll on his predecessor between the sticks Scott Flinders.