YORK City boss Russ Wilcox felt his side’s 2-0 home defeat to Newport proved there’s no camouflaging the need for summer surgery.

Second-half efforts from David Tutonda and Lee Minshull denied the sixth-bottom Minstermen a fourth straight victory at Bootham Crescent during the final home fixture of the season.

In between the goals, Jake Hyde had a penalty saved and Wilcox argued the display offered conclusive evidence that squad strengthening will be needed during the close season.

“Nothing gets camouflaged now,” the City chief declared. “That could have happened if we had won the game, but we know that we have to do some surgery over the summer to make us better.

“Newport had some good players and game changers out on the pitch and that’s why they’re at the top end of the table. We want to be there too if we possibly can and want to bring in quality players to help us do that.

“The game told us what we already knew and why we are near the bottom. We’ve been there all season and just been pushing for survival, so we’ve got to sit down and see how we can move the club forward.”

Wilcox put the result in context, however, on a day when the two relegation places to the Conference were decided with a fixture still left to play.

He said: “The performance wasn’t good enough for us to win and I’m disappointed, especially for the supporters, because I wanted to finish on a high with four wins out of four at home. Instead, everyone’s gone away disappointed but, if we’re looking at the bigger picture, we were not sat in Cheltenham or Tranmere’s dressing rooms.

“There’s no last-day scenario for them now and the main thing is we will be playing League Two football next season. That was my remit from day one of coming here and we have achieved that, so it’s job done.”

Despite admitting Newport were worthy winners, Wilcox did insist the final outcome might have been more favourable had Hyde converted his penalty and Michael Coulson not shot over an empty goal.

“There were key, pivotal moments at 1-0 with Michael’s chance and Jake’s penalty,” the Minstermen boss added. “Over the 90 minutes, they were the better team and they had wing-backs with pace and power who caused us problems.

“We needed a little bit more energy to play at a higher tempo but, if either of those chances had gone in, that would have brought the fans into the game when we were attacking them in the second half.

“Who knows then? At 1-1, it could have been a totally different last 25 minutes.”

For the second successive match, City also conceded from a set-piece delivered into their six-yard box.

The latest effort saw an unchallenged Minshull head in from Mark Byrne’s inswinging free kick and Wilcox confessed: “It was a disappointing goal.

“We had three men in the wall, which I didn’t think we needed because I didn’t feel he was going to score and, then, that leaves you short at the far post. Stephane (Zubar) held his hand up and said it was his man who scored and the goal was his responsibility.”

City started with the team that finished the previous match against Shrewsbury with Shaun Miller preferred to Femi Ilesanmi and on-loan Tottenham striker Shaq Coulthirst filling in again at left-wing back.

On the latter’s suitability to that role, Wilcox said: “It’s been a difficult spot to fill since we lost Josh Carson. The obvious decision is to put Femi in but we’ve tried to be braver.

“There were no complaints when it worked against Morecambe and we won 2-1 but there will be complaints now because we’ve lost. It didn’t quite work although Shaq still showed glimpses of his quality.”

Carson, meanwhile, has been ruled out of Saturday’s trip to Portsmouth with hospital scans suggesting that he has not recovered from the severe concussion he suffered last month during a late-night incident on Merseyside.

“The results weren’t great and Josh won’t be involved in our last game,” Wilcox revealed. “We will now be reassessing him to make sure he’s OK to be fit and able to play football in pre-season.

“He says he feels fine but the specialist made the decision. It was taken out of our hands, which is fine.”

Skipper Russell Penn was replaced late on against Newport but his injury was dismissed as “just a whack” by Wilcox, who is now looking forward to his side’s final fixture of the campaign at Portsmouth.

“Fratton Park is a great place to go when you don’t need any points,” he pointed out “There will be 16 or 17,000 there and you should relish occasions like that.”