IF new arrivals Jake Charles and Luke Woodland make their York City debuts this afternoon they will become the 58th and 59th players to represent the club this year with more than a month of 2016 still left to play.

Admitting such instability is a “recipe for disaster,” City chief Gary Mills will now endeavour to decide on a settled team as he looks to pull the club clear of the National League drop zone.

Incredibly, throughout this calendar year, the Minstermen have only fielded an unchanged side twice.

On the first occasion, former boss Jackie McNamara kept faith with the starting XI that saw off Portsmouth 3-1 at Bootham Crescent to earn a surprise relegation lifeline in April, only to see the drop into non-League football confirmed by the same set of players following a 3-0 reverse at Accrington four days later.

This term, McNamara also persevered with the side that started the campaign by sharing the spoils in a 1-1 draw at Maidstone and they followed it up by beating Macclesfield 1-0, before an injury to Matt Fry saw Josh Robinson get his chance, putting back in motion the cycle of constant tinkering from one game to the next.

Seven fixtures into his win-less return to the club, Mills has made six changes to his team on three separate instances already, although he has reduced that to two and three in the club’s last couple of outings and insists that the reshuffling must now be kept to a minimum.

“We need a settled side as quickly as possible and I’d like half-a-dozen games where we don’t have to make changes, because it’s a recipe for disaster when you keep doing that,” Mills reasoned.

“You do it because you’re hoping whoever comes in does better and it’s obviously down to the players and how they play but, sometimes, you have to stick with what you think is your best XI if they are available, even through a defeat, to give them the chance to get to know each other’s games.”

Similarly, Mills feels the time is right for players to assume defined roles within the team.

Sean Newton has been used as a central defender in a back three, a left-wing back and a makeshift striker since his arrival from Wrexham last month, having played most of the season at full back for his previous club.

Revealing that he is ready to dispense with the experiment of using Newton in attack, Mills said: “I’ve brought Sean Newton in and he’s one hell of a player, but we’ve got to settle him in a position now, because he’s played in three or four different ones and he’s only been here for a short space of time.

“He’s not going to play up front and we’re trying to address that position, but he set up a goal and should have probably scored another the other night when he went through but tried to pass instead. I know he will give me and the club everything, but we’ve got to settle him in one position for us to get the best out of him.”

Having shipped four goals against Lincoln, meanwhile, Mills is now contemplating reverting from a back three to a four-man defence, adding: “We’ll have to look at it and see whether we have two centre halves who are good enough to play in a back four.

“That’s why I went for three in the first place, because I thought that what we had wasn’t good enough. Yan (Klukowski) didn’t have the best of games since he’s been playing there against Lincoln and his poor touch led to the free kick for their second goal, but that happens and he still did OK and has done well in the other matches.”

Aidan Connolly, meanwhile, has closed the gap on Press Player of the Year leader Kyle Letheren to three points.

The former Dundee United midfielder leapfrogged Alex Whittle back into second place in the standings after collecting two points as our second-highest rated player from last weekend’s 2-0 defeat to Dagenham.

Press man-of-the-match Sean Newton (three) and our third-highest rated performer Simon Heslop (one) were also recognised for their efforts with points.

Connolly, meanwhile, received the two Player of the Month bonus points on offer to the player who posted most man-of-the-match votes in our online Twitter poll.

Following Tuesday’s 4-1 home loss to Lincoln, The Press points went to our man-of-the-match Simon Lappin (three), Scott Flinders (two) and Newton (one).

Lappin also headed the online poll.

The Press Player of the Year standings: Letheren 19, Connolly 16, Whittle 15, Heslop 13, Brodie 12, Kamdjo 10, Flinders 8, Higgins 7, Felix 5, Fry 5, Galbraith 5, Newton 4, Klukowski 3, Lappin 3, Clappison 2, Dixon 2, Rooney 2, Wright 2, Holmes 1, Nti 1, Oyebanjo 1, Simpson 1, Walton 1.

The November Press Player of the Month standings: Klukowski 5, Lappin 5, Connolly 4, Newton 4, Flinders 2, Kamdjo 2, Heslop 1, Holmes 1.

Goals: Brodie 7, Connolly 3, Heslop 3, Fry 2, Klukowski 2, Fenwick 1, Galbraith 1, Kamdjo 1, Nti 1, Own Goal 1, Wright 1.

Assists: Connolly 6, Rooney 3, Felix 2, Galbraith 2, Wright 2, Cooper 1, Fry 1, Heslop 1, Higgins 1, Holmes 1, Klukowski 1, Newton 1, Whittle 1.

Bad boys: Brodie nine yellow cards; Rooney eight yellow; Higgins five yellow; Heslop one red, three yellow; Fry four yellow; Nti one red, two yellow; Wright three yellow; Connolly, Fenwick, Kamdjo, Klukowski, Whittle all two yellow; Moke one red; Clappison, Dixon, Galbraith, Johnson, Letheren, Newton, Thompson all one yellow.