CONNOR Smith is determined to play his part in York City’s promotion push after feeling helpless as Hartlepool were relegated from the Football League last season.

The 21-year-old winger only managed two substitute outings as the north-east outfit were condemned to non-League football for the first time in 96 years.

Smith has only mustered two starts, meanwhile, since his summer move to the Minstermen from the Victoria Ground, having also been farmed out on loan to Whitby.

But he has been hailed from the bench during City’s last three matches with manager Martin Gray insisting that he will play his part during the end-of-season run-in.

On his hopes of having a meaningful impact on the team’s 2017/18 fortunes, Smith said: “Hartlepool last season was a write off for me and, whilst I was gutted for people like Matthew Bates, the lads and the fans, I wasn’t really bothered about the people upstairs.

“This season, though, is a much bigger issue for me. I want to play a part in taking York up by playing games and contributing, because you can’t just sit on the sidelines and claim you’ve been part of something.

“As a footballer, you want to play week in, week out. That hasn’t happened for whatever reason but, if the manager has said I’m going to play a part, I will put my work in Monday to Friday and give my best in the reserve games so, when I get a chance, I will take some risks and do as well as I can.”

Smith is also out of contract this summer and, on playing for his own future, he added: “I’ve just got to train and play as well as I can, not moan or whinge, then I’ll see whatever happens off the back of that.”

Having been brought in by Gray’s predecessor Gary Mills as a winger, Smith’s recent chances to impress have come at right back – a position he filled in this afternoon’s 2-1 reserve defeat at Bradford and is growing accustomed to.

“It’s something I’ve always seemed to do when numbers have been short in that position and I’ve been asked to do a job there,” he reasoned. “Now, I seem to be doing it a bit more, but I don’t mind.

“With full-backs these days, it’s a lot more about attacking and getting forward. They need that in their game and attacking from deep is what I like to do – it’s when I play my best football.

“The question mark is whether I can do the defensive side I guess but, so far when I’ve played there, I’ve felt OK and these reserve games are useful for learning the position more, so you can make your mistakes then rather than on a Saturday.

“It’s never nice to lose but, the most important thing in reserve games is getting match sharp and, if you’re not in the team, the games are a chance to get some football and get through 90 minutes because that sets you up to give yourself the best opportunity to give a good account of yourself on a Saturday.”

With this weekend’s trip to Nuneaton postponed because of international call-ups, City’s next match will be the rearranged home clash against Southport on Tuesday night.

In total, three games have been called off in March, with the trip to Kidderminster also having to be rescheduled, but Smith believes the disruption has not been as problematic as it might have been.

“It can knock you out of your rhythm a bit, but we’re training hard and we’ve got a game on Tuesday night, so it’s not like we’re without a match for two weeks and we’ll prepare right over the weekend and take it from there,” he explained. “Southport have been on a really good run, but we’re at home and we’ve got to stamp our authority on the game.

“They’ve been scoring goals and not conceding many but, if we want to get to where we want to be, we’ve got to beat teams like Southport who are on good runs and kickstart a good run of our own.”