Two from his five is the taxing takeaway facing York City manager Terry Dolan as he tries to whip his blunt forward line into sharp-shooters.

The York boss indicated it is unlikely he will be dipping into the transfer market to bolster his forward line after another bank return in the 2-0 defeat at Peterborough.

Instead, the City chief seems set to adopt a mix-and-match policy as he perseveres with his current striking incumbents - strating with tomorrow's trip to Macclesfield Town.

"At this stage the obvious deficiency is a lack of goals," he conceded.

"But we have five strikers at the club, although Colin Alcide is not really fully fit yet, and I would expect some combination of those five should do the trick.

"At the moment it is a case of finding the right combination."

Saturday's London Road defeat means City have picked up just one point from 18 and scored just one goal in those six games.

"The quality is lacking and it is fairly evident if you look at the statistics a lack of goals has been a big problem," said Dolan.

"In the first half, we wanted to try and turn them but we didn't get the ball behind them.

"In the second half, if we had kept playing the long ball with the wind behind us it would have just run out to the goalkeeper.

"We were trying to get the balls played in diagonally but again, we didn't do it with enough quality."

After defending resolutely, Dolan admitted Andy Clarke's opening goal just minutes before half-time had come at a decisive time.

"I just wish we had got to half time without conceding a goal. I think that was crucial as the game materialised," he said.

"We thought we had done most things right from a defensive point of view. We didn't create anything but the wind was very strong and apart from one slip that cost us a goal we had defended well.

"But I have said to the players we cannot be expected to defend for the majority of the game and expect to get something out of it. We need to do a lot better when we have got the ball.

"The defenders can't keep soaking up the pressure because it is bound to tell at the end of the day.

"The first priority now is when we do get the ball forward we have got to keep possession better. We didn't do that."

With bottom-club Chester City winning 2-0 at Exeter City, the gap between City and the relegation spot has been cut to eight points. Carlisle, whom City entertain on Saturday, are now level on 23 points with Chester following their 5-0 defeat at Lincoln City.

Also below City are Shrewsbury, on 30 points, who were beaten 2-0 at home by Cheltenham.

But with thoughts now turned to tomorrow's trip to the Moss Rose Ground, Dolan admitted his only concern was City.

"It's what we do that matters not what Chester do and it is a case of stressing to players when we do get into the right areas we have got to produce better quality."

In a boost for City, Steve Agnew made his first appearance since mid-January when he came on as a second half substitute.

"It was good for him to get half-an-hour under his belt. He just needs games now,"said Dolan.

Of his new signings, midfielder Paul Talbot and goalkeeper Alan Fettis, the City boss said: "It was a difficult game for Paul Talbot to play, he has only been with us a couple of days but he is going to give us balance on that left-hand side.

"I don't think Alan could be blamed for either of the goals. The first goal was a lapse of concentration and the second one we are chasing the game and it was a quality cross to the far post and the extra height of Jason Lee did the damage."

l City's highly-rated youth team were beaten 3-1 at Hartlepool United in the Football League Youth Alliance League North Premier Division.

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