ADAM HINSHELWOOD’s York City side will look to overcome the challenge of FC Halifax Town’s pitch as the Minstermen search for their fourth win on the bounce.

Hishelwood is keen for his York side to handle the wear and tear of the Halifax pitch, which has come under scrutiny in recent months with multiple postponements, including the clash with the Minstermen yesterday.

The City boss has ruled out using the status of the pitch as any sort of excuse, and expects his side to rise to the challenge as they look to bolster their hopes of staying adrift of the Vanarama National League relegation zone.

“It’s the challenge for us, we have to not pat ourselves on the back,” Hinshelwood affirmed.

“It’s three wins on the bounce and we enjoy it when we win in football, now the players need to take it into the match.

“We won’t focus on them until after this game (Chesterfield), but tonight I’ll watch some highlights with a nice ale to watch it.

“We’ve got to enjoy these moments and winning games of football, but as of tomorrow (Saturday) the preparation begins for our trip to Halifax.

“We watched them a couple of weeks ago when they played Chesterfield and they were excellent on that day, they gave them a real hiding.

“They’ve got some real quality in their grasps as well, we’ve got to be wary of that but at the same time they’ve got to stop us as well.

“It’s definitely going to be a factor, any more substantial rain and it will be a problem for the pitch.

“It’s pass and parcel of it, at this stage we’re not going to be making any excuses and Halifax still played some good football on that pitch against Chesterfield.

“It will be a factor, we might have to miss out the press a little bit more and play it into the forward.”

Hinshelwood also provided a brief update on the injuries to Callum Howe and Will Smith, with the City boss hopeful that the latter would be available for the visit to Halifax.

Hinshelwood explained: “We’ll see, Callum Howe missed a large part of training with tonsilitis. We had to rely on Cal today (Friday).

“Will has struggled a little bit with his knee so we’re hoping that he will be okay, so there’s a potential change there.

“It will be a case of rest up tomorrow (Saturday), get everyone in on Sunday and get ready for the match.”