YORK City boss Gary Mills reckons Sam Muggleton’s long throw will be worth more than ten goals next season.

The 21-year-old left back, who claimed several assists for the Minstermen last term with the touchline talent following his March arrival from Eastleigh, hurled the ball on to Michael Rankine’s head for the home side’s second goal during last night’s 2-2 friendly draw with Scunthorpe.

Louis Almond had earlier opened the scoring for City and last term’s League One play-off, semi-finalists only earned a share of the spoils through former Bootham Crescent favourite Neal Bishop and Hakeeb Adelakun after Mills’ men had finished the last quarter of the game with a weakened side.

On the threat carried by Muggleton, meanwhile, Mills enthused: “Sam’s throw will be a weapon again this season and I will be disappointed if we don’t get double-figures from it.

“People might say we’re only doing it because of the division we are playing in, but Stoke used it in the Premier League with Rory Delap and other teams do at the highest level to get goals so, if we need to use it, we will do.”

The City boss went on to express his satisfaction at his team’s display in their second pre-season outing, adding: “I was really pleased with our performance and we should have really won the game, but we put a few of our young lads on and that’s when they got their goals.

“We looked strong, organised and our fitness looked good too against a League One side, but I’ve said to the players that whoever we come up against, we’ve got to show what we are capable of, whether that’s in the league, cup or friendlies, because we are a proud club who are going to achieve and show we can bounce back from what has happened here.”

Mills went on to reveal that the club would not be pursuing their interest in Ben Gordan, but will continue to run the rule over fellow trialists Adam Porritt and Jaseem Sukhar after all three featured in the second half against Scunthorpe.

“The only one leaving is Ben Gordan because, now Alex Whittle is staying, we don’t need another left back,” Mills explained. “We’ll keep the other two in the building to look at them a bit longer.”