THERE will be no u-turn on Jackie McNamara’ s decision to step down as York City boss.

The Minstermen announced on Monday that McNamara will be leaving his managerial role at Bootham Crescent, but will continue to train the team until a replacement for him is found - a procedure the club has stated could take two weeks.

McNamara is hoping that process could be completed before Saturday’s FA Cup fourth qualifying round tie against Curzon Ashton but, even in the event of a resounding win over the National League North strugglers if he is still holding the fort, there will be no rethink regarding his position.

The ex-Dundee United chief confirmed to the Talk Sport national radio station: “No, that won’t be happening because, the next game we lose, it would just bring it all back again. I had a good chat with the players on Monday and explained the thinking behind it and that it was best for another person to come in with another voice.

“I don’t think I’ll be here for two weeks and the chairman might pick somebody before the weekend. That would be the ideal scenario, because it’s a case of the sooner, the better, but I’ll help him in the meantime.

“That’s got nothing sinister to do with money or anything. It’s down to the chairman being the reason why I came to League Two, stayed in the summer and am staying to help him get somebody else in.

“The way he has supported me is something I wished I’d had earlier in my managerial career.”

McNamara has also suggested that he would have tendered his resignation had City held on for victory at Braintree at the weekend.

The former Celtic captain had promised to walk away if his side did not secure a “positive result” in Essex following the 6-1 midweek debacle at Guiseley.

Lee Barnard’s 90th-minute penalty went on to cancel out Simon Heslop’s first-half opener at Cressing Road, but McNamara reasoned that the players had stopped responding to his instructions, adding: “Even if we had won 1-0 at Braintree and, although the players had given me everything and wanted to stay, I wanted them to pass the ball more and I wasn’t getting that.

“The pitch didn’t make that easy, but the way we played wasn’t really what I wanted to see. We scored four times in a couple of games with some great goals by moving the ball around with pace, but that went out of the window in the next game, as if they’d forgotten everything they had done well.”

The ex-Scotland international defended his decision to give 17-year-old Sam Fielding his first exposure in senior football at the weekend, though, arguing he was not subject to the same mental scars affecting others in the squad.

“I gave him his debut because he didn’t have any fear going into the game and he was excellent,” McNamara explained. “He’s got a massive future in the game.

“He hadn’t experienced the fear that other players have this season, so it was the right decision to play him. The fall-out from last season was also not down to these players – it was down to me for not being able to turn things around to keep us in the division.”