YORK City will not be entering into any more contract negotiations for now after securing the services of Adriano Moke, Jon Parkin and Sean Newton.

Moke has followed 25-goal top scorer Parkin and skipper Newton by signing an extension to his Bootham Crescent deal, which was due to expire at the end of the season.

The 28-year-old midfielder has agreed terms until the summer of 2019, with manager Martin Gray having now formed an opinion on all the players from the squad he inherited in October, aside from long-term injured pair Louis Almond and Clovis Kamdjo.

Commenting on securing Moke’s services for next season, City sporting director Dave Penney said: “Martin’s been here three-and-a-half months now and has identified who he likes and doesn’t like.

“Those who he didn’t like have gone and, those that he wants to keep and were coming to the end of their contracts, we have managed to sort out, with Adriano following on from Jon and Sean and that’s it for contracts at the moment. There are one or two others we still need to have a look at, like Louis Almond and Clovis Kamdjo, who we’ve not really seen play and will have to prove themselves.

“Louis is seeing a specialist next week and will probably play in the North Riding Cup game here against Boro Rangers on January 30. Clovis has a bit of a problem with a calf strain, which happens when you’ve been out of the game for more than a year and we’ve not really got a timescale on when he’ll be back.”

Despite limping off in the second half of Tuesday night’s 5-3 victory at Telford, Moke will be fit for Saturday’s home match with play-off rivals Spennymoor and it is hoped Parkin will be available after being withdrawn at the interval as a precautionary measure due to a slight strain in midweek.

Penney added that he believes the inside-right role Moke is currently filling best suits the former Glenn Hoddle Academy graduate, reasoning: “He’s an enigma for me, but he has become one of our better players.

“When we first came to the club, he was sat at the base of the three in midfield and Sean Newton and Simon Heslop were the ones who got forward. We’ve slightly changed that, because he was a winger before and he has the ability to go past people.

“He’s also very fit and is always on the front foot. Personally, I don’t feel he’s disciplined enough to play in a midfield two, because he will go off in different directions, which is his strength, so we don’t want to stop that.

“He’s better in a three for me because we want him to use his legs to get forward instead of sitting in front of the back four and receiving the ball too deep.”

Theo Wharton does not appear to be part of Gray’s future plans, having seen his loan spell at National League North rivals Tamworth extended until the end of the season, while fellow midfielder Tyler Walton has also been deemed surplus to requirements.

On the latter’s release, Penney explained: “Tyler was training with Barnsley in pre-season and they were having a good look at him. He was also training with us in the evenings when I was at Guiseley and I thought there was something there.

“We were a bit light on bodies here in midfield, so I asked the manager to have a look at him and we brought him in on a week-to-week basis, hoping he could push through, but he did not make enough impact on the first team to justify him being in and around the club. He tried his best, but just came up a little short and we wish him well with wherever he ends up next.” Following Tuesday’s midweek thriller, City have now averaged exactly three goals a game during a five-match winning run – the same number as Spennymoor and, while Penney wants to carry on playing exciting football, he admitted that the side must stop conceding so regularly.

“We are wide open at times and we’ve got to tighten that up,” he insisted. “We’ve only had one clean sheet since we’ve been here, which is not just down to the defence – it’s about the whole starting XI and begins from the front.

“I think we attack like the Red Arrows at times – we all go forward, when maybe some people just need to sit, keep our shape and let those flair-minded players go, because you can be at your most vulnerable when you’re on the attack. Simon Heslop did that a bit at Spennymoor, but perhaps we should have changed our shape a bit earlier when they did.

“We know we can score goals and we’ll continue to try and keep doing that, because we’re in the entertainment business and Tuesday night’s game was entertaining, which is great as long as you’re on the right end of the final result. Manchester City are very good at that, even though they lost to Liverpool 4-3 at the weekend, but it would also be nice for us to sit on the bench comfortably and win a game 5-1, 4-0 or 3-0.”