YORK City boss Russ Wilcox believed his team’s 2-0 home defeat to Stevenage served as a “wake-up call” for anybody that felt the club were free from danger this term.

Goals from Adam Marriott and Tom Pett mean City now lie just one point above the Sky Bet League Two relegation zone.

Having previously been beaten 1-0 at Wycombe, the Minstermen have suffered back-to-back league losses for the first time during Wilcox’s three-month tenure, dousing some of the optimism provided by a four-game haul of eight points from a possible 12 either side of Christmas.

A forthright Wilcox said: “We’ve got 20 games to go and maybe we’ve had a little wake-up call. There’s been talk of something similar to last season happening (when the club reached the play-offs after being third-bottom at the turn of the year) but we’ve got to get away from the bottom half of the table before we start talking about the top half and, on the showing against Stevenage, that will be a dogfight.

“It was nearly the same side that played so well in the 3-0 win against Carlisle and you can’t be Jekyll and Hyde. It just shows how you can’t get carried away in football by a couple of back-to-back wins over Christmas, but we can at least take some encouragement from how we played in those matches.”

Wilcox confessed that he could now be prompted to make further additions to his squad during this month’s transfer window, adding: “I’m still looking around and might have to look a bit harder after this performance but I won’t beat people with sticks.

“We’ve had a bad day at the office. If that happens on a regular basis, though, we are in trouble.

“The club has been down near the bottom all season, so it’s nothing new. I think there had been one win in 14 games when I came here, so that’s been the trend.

“I thought we’d come through that with eight points from four games, but now we’ve gone the other way again, so we’ve got to get back to basics against Burton at home next weekend.”

Summing up the Stevenage display, Wilcox bemoaned his team’s technical play.

“We were not good enough,” he admitted. “I’m not going to camouflage anything because the lack of quality was eye-opening.

“We couldn’t pass to a red shirt and we just looked bad. Like Wycombe last weekend, Stevenage deserved their victory.

“They got their first goal and then played on the counter attack, which they did well. I feel for our supporters because the last two home displays had been outstanding so they came full of optimism, but we just didn’t perform.

“They now deserve to get a whole-hearted display against Burton.”

Despite his team trailing to Marriott and Pett’s goals, Wilcox also pointed to Wes Fletcher’s failure to take a 67th-minute chance as a pivotal incident in the game.

York Press:

KEY MISS: York City's Wes Fletcher missed a "golden chance"

Fletcher blasted straight at visiting keeper Chris Day when the ball broke to him a couple of yards from goal with the City boss reasoning: “We have gone three games without a goal and that was a golden chance.

“It was a key moment because, with 25 minutes to go, if it had gone in, even at 2-0 down, the stadium would have erupted and that would have given the players the impetus to try and get another one.”

Last season’s 13-goal leading marksman Fletcher, who was replaced a minute later, has now failed to net in 15 league matches and Wilcox wants him to take up more central positions to try and bring that barren spell to an end.

“We showed some clips on Friday of Wes’ two goals in the first match against Stevenage and the first one was a cracking finish. We are trying to get that confidence and belief back into him.

“We were going to make the substitutions anyway and, on another day, his shot would have gone in off the keeper’s backside but I’d also like to see him getting in positions in front of the sticks a bit more. He’s doing a lot of his work down the channels, which he needs to do, but I want him to get in that box as well.”

Femi Ilesanmi, City’s only ever-present this season, had earlier been replaced by winger Anthony Straker at left back, although Wilcox is uncertain whether he would consider playing the latter in that position on a regular basis.

“I just wanted to change things and put Anthony Straker there because we needed to be more attack-minded,” the Minstermen chief explained. “He’s played there before, but I don’t know whether we’d look at playing him there long term.

“Sometimes, you just have to react to what’s happening on the pitch and use your substitutes accordingly”

Wilcox also went without a substitute goalkeeper against Stevenage after allowing Jason Mooney to join Conference club Alfreton on loan.

He was still missing Michael Ingham too, although he has just started some handling work as he continues his recovery from a shoulder problem.

On that situation, Wilcox added: “Jason has gone out to get games and that’s the only way he can get better. You can do all the training you want but, especially in the position he plays in, it’s mainly about decisions in game situations and he will be doing that just one level below us and playing similar football.

“It was a difficult decision because we didn’t really want to let him out until Monday, but Alfreton needed him. I didn’t feel comfortable without a keeper on the bench but Neil Warnock has done it for ten years and I don’t think it’s too big a gamble.”