YORK City manager Martin Foyle has insisted that he will not let sentiment influence his team selection ahead of tomorrow’s Blue Square Bet Premier curtain raiser against Kidderminster Harriers.

Aggborough old boys Duane Courtney and David McDermott are both desperate to play against the club they left at the end of last season but Foyle will be placing the needs of the team above those of individuals as he looks to make a winning start to the 2010/11 campaign at Bootham Crescent.

Courtney has missed all but three of City’s eight pre-season fixtures with a niggling knee injury while McDermott will be waiting to hear whether he has nailed down a place in midfield, where the likes of Alex Lawless, Levi Mackin, Jonathan Smith, Chris Carruthers, Neil Barrett and Peter Till are also hoping to get the nod.

The City boss said: “Sentiment can’t influence your team selection and all I am looking at for the start of the season is fitness levels and players who are well-prepared.

“You can’t let other considerations get in the way although I’m obviously aware that players can thrive on playing against their old teams.”

Should Courtney fail to make the first XI then Foyle is likely to field either midfielder Lawless or centre-half Daniel Parslow at right-back and is unperturbed by either eventuality, saying: “It’s not a troublesome position.

“Alex has played there virtually all his career and Dan Parslow has filled in well there in the past.

“Duane has been training fantastic this week and I’m not ruling him out, but I will have no problems playing somebody else there, as we have players who can double up in positions.”

Centre-back Greg Young, though, is unlikely to be considered for selection having also missed the majority of the Minstermen’s pre-season with a badly-bruised foot.

Djoumin Sangare, therefore, is likely to play alongside David McGurk in defence if Parslow shifts to full-back.

About Young’s progress, Foyle added: “Greg’s done a fair bit of running this week and, despite having a gashed head, he’s been heading the ball away when we’ve been practising set-pieces in training. He’s certainly not one of the soft ones.”

A cost-cutting exercise at Kidderminster has seen just five of last season’s players retained with manager Steve Burr recruiting a glut of replacements from semi-professional football.

But the Harriers have won their last six pre-season outings, including victories against Crewe, Burton and a Nottingham Forest XI, so Foyle is expecting a challenging contest.

He said: “They have a lot of experience with players like Marc Albrighton, John Finnigan, Chris McPhee and Lee Morris.

“We know they will be decent going forward so we will need to defend well but, even though they’ve had a fantastic pre-season, you don’t know what their game plan will be.”