YORK City are looking for teenage ambassadors to persuade their peers that you can gain more pride from following your local team than you do from supporting Manchester United or Chelsea.

The Minstermen are ready to launch the first-ever York City Youth Council of 15 fans, aged between 13 and 18, which will also offer successful candidates a voice in terms of the running of their football club.

Bi-monthly council meetings with key individuals at the club are anticipated, with supporter liaison officer Phil Howden welcoming the venture as the club consider the needs of future generations of supporters ahead of the move to Monks Cross.

He said: “One of my main roles as supporter liaison officer is to improve fan engagement. We run fans forums for adult supporters that are mainly attended by representatives from supporters groups, but I feel there is a gap in terms of our activism with fans aged from 13 to 18.

“Our supporters’ base is getting older, which isn’t a problem, but we also need young people coming through the turnstiles and having their say in the direction of the football club. We want to hear their opinions.”

Howden, himself, grew up watching City with his teenage years encompassing an underwhelming era that saw the likes of Bobby Saxton and John Bird struggle to deliver success in between the glorious Denis Smith years and Wembley 1993.

City are, of course, currently at their lowest-ever ebb sitting bottom of the National League, but Howden still reasons that supporting your home-town team is a feeling that cannot be matched cheering on a Premier League giant sat in front of your PlayStation - a message he is hoping the council can convey in the community.

“The people of York are very proud of their city and rightly so,” Howden explained. “It’s a fantastic place and part of that pride manifests itself in - and can be expressed by - supporting your local sports teams.

“You can’t feel the same if you’re a fan of Manchester United or Chelsea, because you’re not from there. My mum was a PE teacher at Easingwold and taught me to support local sport because, if you don’t, nobody else will, as you are the ones from York.

“With the massive exposure these days, you can probably watch every Manchester United game without ever going there and it’s only natural that you might pick a big team to follow when you’re young. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you don’t neglect your own city’s team as well.

“When I was growing up, I used to love the games under lights and I think Bootham Crescent offers a unique matchday experience. We might be staring down the barrel of a gun at sixth-tier football at the moment, but it won’t always be like that.

“There’s no reason we can’t be in League One again and achieving the sort of things Burton and Scunthorpe are doing now in the future.”

The plan is for the council to meet away from the current fan forums and, on its purpose within the club, Howden added: “The council will attend separate fans forums because I want them to be as relaxed as they can be and, whilst our fans are not intimidating people, when I was 13, I’m not sure I would have fancied coming forward with my opinions when there were people around who have supported the club for 40 or 50 years.

“I think it will be better if they work with each other and become ambassadors in their schools and peer groups. That can be done in whatever way they decide – whether it’s persuading schools to put posters up, persuading their friends to come and watch or just supporting whatever the club is doing.

“If each ambassador, for example, could bring one extra person along that would be a big plus. If the Youth Council then becomes a permanent fixture, the membership will evolve as people get older and, hopefully, they can carry on their ambassador roles in adult life.”

Howden would be particularly interested in the new group’s view on admission prices.

Kids for a Quid, cut-price FA Trophy tickets and Bring a Friend for a Fiver initiatives have all proven popular this term while, just 40 miles away, League One neighbours Bradford City have seen their crowds mushroom to 20,000 after gate charges were slashed.

“I think our pricing structure for season-tickets is excellent with a cost of £50 for under-12s and £125 for under-16s, which still works out at £5 a match, but we could still do more because that benefits the hardcore, but not walk-up visitors,” Howden pointed out. “Fans of a certain age might not come to, or be able to make, 23 games a season.

“They might go to ten a season or even five and I think we have to make it more affordable for those supporters. The chairman and chief executive have both agreed to ticket initiatives this season and, when they are well supported like they have been, that makes it more likely that they will be repeated or built on in the future.”

Anybody interested in becoming a York City Youth Council candidate should email slo@yorkcityfootballclub.co.uk with their name, age, school/college, along with details of how long they have supported City, how often they attend matches and why they should be selected in no more than 500 words by Friday, March 31.

Fans under 16 must have their parents’ permission to be involved and successful candidates will be required to meet on one midweek evening every two months, probably between 6pm and 7.30pm.

On the pitch, Sean Newton has won The Press Player of the Month award for a third time out of the last four.

The 28-year-old utility man, who took the honours for November and January, finished top of the pile again in February – two points ahead of nearest rival Dan Parslow.

Newton received the most man-of-the-match votes from our Twitter poll following Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Lincoln to collect the two bonus points on offer towards the standings.

The Press points, meanwhile, were shared between our respective top three performers Hamza Bencherif (three), Alex Whittle (two) and Kyle Letheren (one).

During last weekend’s 1-0 win against Brackley, our points were dished out to Newton (three), Letheren (two) and Parslow (one).

Newton and Letheren shared the bonus points from that game.

The Press Player of the Year standings: Letheren 31, Whittle 24, Newton 18, Connolly 16, Heslop 16, Brodie 12, Klukowski 11, Kamdjo 10, Parslow 10, Parkin 9, Flinders 8, Fry 8, Lappin 8, Higgins 7, Oliver 6, Felix 5, Galbraith 5, Morgan-Smith 5, Rooney 5, Holmes 4, Racine 4, Bencherif 3, Murphy 3, Clappison 2, Dixon 2, Wright 2, Cooper 1, Nti 1, Oyebanjo 1, Rzonca 1, Simpson 1, Walton 1.

The Press Player of the Month for February final standings: Newton 11, Parslow 9, Heslop 5, Oliver 5, Letheren 4, Whittle 4, Bencherif 3, Klukowski 3, Morgan-Smith 2, Holmes 1, Lappin 1,.

Goals: Brodie 7, Parkin 5, Heslop 4, Morgan-Smith 4, Connolly 3, Fry 2, Klukowski 2, Newton 2, Oliver 2, Own Goals 2, Fenwick 1, Galbraith 1, Kamdjo 1, Lappin 1, Murphy 1, Nti 1, Racine 1, Rooney 1, Rzonca 1, Wright 1.

Assists: Connolly 6, Newton 5, Parkin 4, Rooney 4, Felix 2, Galbraith 2, Heslop 2, Klukowski 2, Parslow 2, Whittle 2, Wright 2, Cooper 1, Fenwick 1, Fry 1, Higgins 1, Holmes 1, Morgan-Smith 1, Murphy 1, Oliver 1, Racine 1.

Bad boys: Brodie, Rooney both nine yellow cards; Heslop one red, five yellow; Fenwick, Higgins both five yellow; Fry four yellow; Nti, Parkin both one red, two yellow; Klukowski, Newton, Oliver, Whittle, Wright all three yellow; Bencherif, Connolly, Kamdjo all two yellow; Holmes, Moke both one red; Clappison, Dixon, Galbraith, Johnson, Lappin, Letheren, McDaid, Morgan-Smith, Murphy, Racine, Thompson all one yellow.