YORK City boss Martin Gray admitted feeling like he had been “beaten to death” after seeing his new team throw away a 2-0 lead in the last five minutes at Leamington.

David Ferguson’s first goal for the Minstermen and Jon Parkin’s ninth of the season had been a scant reward for the visitors’ dominance, before Junior English scrambled in an 85th-minute reply for the Brakes and that was followed by an equally sloppy Liam Canavan leveller from the next attack.

Both goals came from set-pieces – a free kick and a throw-in – with Gray left gobsmacked by how the club had not collected back-to-back victories from his first two matches in charge after the 2-1 home triumph against Brackley.

The stunned City chief confessed: “We’re scratching our heads as to how we didn’t come away with a win, but you can’t dominate a game for 85 minutes and then have a five-minute lapse in concentration that has seen us drop two massive points. It should have been 3-0, 4-0 or 5-0 at half-time and we looked very comfortable but, after an ending like that, you feel beaten to death, because it seems like a defeat.

“We’ve taken four points from two games, but it should have been six, because I didn’t believe they were going to hurt us and I thought our two centre-halves and full-backs were very strong. I didn’t see any danger, but then we’ve been punished.

“For 85 minutes, it was our best performance over the two games, but you have to kill games off and we had some unbelievable chances to do that, so it was a very frustrating day. We’ve still got to take the positives, though, because this game was an improvement on the last one.”

On-loan Leeds keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell was handed his City debut and, resolving him of any responsibility for the goals, Gray was impressed by how the Darlington-born, 20-year-old handled the occasion.

“I thought the keeper was nice and solid,” he added. “His handling and distribution were good.

“He did what he needed to do very well and I couldn’t fault him.”

Alex Whittle was the other change from the Brackley match, with Aidan Connolly dropping out due to injury.

The former Southport defender lined up at left back with Ferguson pushed further up that flank but, following the former’s late replacement by Jassem Sukar to avoid the risk of aggravating his groin problem, City conceded the two late goals.

“I thought Alex Whittle was great,” Gray declared. “I just didn’t want any fatigue in his groin to mean he picked up a more long-term injury, so that’s why he came off.

“David Ferguson also gave us good pace going forward and it was nice that he got himself a goal, although he should have hit the target with the second chance he had.” On Connolly’s problem, Gray revealed: “He picked up a niggle in training but, hopefully, he’ll be OK for Salford.”