RECALLED midfielder Lewis Montrose knows "cut-throat" York City chief Nigel Worthington will not hesitate to drop him if his standards dip at all.

Montrose had only completed a minute of League football this season prior to being on the pitch for the whole of Saturday's 0-0 home draw with Portsmouth.

He is not getting complacent about his return to the first XI, however, having also been left out of the starting line-up for 15 fixtures from the end of January to mid-April last term.

Montrose was then restored to the team for the last three fixtures of the regular season before losing his place again and only managing six minutes as a late second-leg substitute at Fleetwood during the Minstermen's play-off, semi-final clash.

Nine players - Jason Mooney, John McCombe, Tom Platt, Anthony Straker, Lindon Meikle, Ryan Jarvis, Dave Winfield, Jake Hyde and Like Summerfield - have all been dropped by Worthington at different stages of this season and Montrose is well aware that he cannot take a starting position for granted.

He said: "It's all about performing because the manager is cut-throat and football is a cut-throat industry. If you don't perform, you don't play and that's only right because it's how you get a good team with competition."

Montrose hopes, however, that he did enough against Pompey to run out again against Newport this weekend, adding: "I found out last Thursday that I was going to play against Portsmouth and I was excited.

"Like any footballer, I want to play football and I want to play for York. You can train as much as you want but you want to have that stage on a Saturday to go out and perform, so it was great to get my chance and, hopefully, I can stay in the team.

"We will see and I'm looking forward to the next game now, where we will be doing out upmost to win."

Montrose, 25, also reasoned that work away from the training ground enabled him to complete his first 90-minute outing since Easter Monday.

"I haven't been playing but I have been doing my own bit to stay as fit as I can," he explained. "I've been doing extra running and some cycling because you have to keep yourself topped up to make sure you are ready when you get the opportunity.

"There's no fitness like match fitness but I just had to build myself into the game against Portsmouth and that's what I did."

Montrose lined up alongside Russell Penn for only the seventh time in a starting line up since the City skipper's transfer from Cheltenham in January.

In those contests, the Minstermen have only lost once - a 2-0 reverse at Hartlepool - with Montrose keen for an opportunity to enhance that record, saying: "He's good to play with. He communicates well and, hopefully, we can form a partnership."

Despite declaring himself pleased with the performance against Portsmouth, though, Montrose added that the club, who have shared the spoils in seven of their 11 Sky Bet League Two contests this term, must start turning draws into victories.

"If you keep a clean sheet, you have a chance of winning the game and we looked solid (on Saturday)," the former Gillingham and Wycombe promotion winner said. "There was also some good play in and around the box.

"It was just unfortunate that we couldn't win but we had a couple of good chances and we've got to build on that. It was a good performance and you can't ever underestimate a point.

"A draw was a step forward from the previous game and we have to take it into this weekend but we can't get carried away. It was only a draw.

"We didn't win the game and the most important thing is to win football matches."

Montrose believes, meanwhile, that the club might have got the sticky spell every team tends to suffer during the course of a season over with early in the campaign.

"Maybe we have got our little blip out of the way now," he reasoned. "We have a good squad of players and it's just a matter of time before we go on our little run."

He also reckons on-loan striker Ryan Brunt can help revive the side's fortunes on the evidence of his debut against Portsmouth.

"I thought he was fantastic," Montrose enthused. "He pressed and held the ball up well and I was just gutted for him that he did not get a goal because he worked his socks off.

"Sometimes, you don't get the rub of the green so, hopefully, he will score in the next game."