IT might be the season of goodwill to all men but York City's festive spirit landed them in a spot of bother on Saturday.

The Minstermen's lower-league opponents Northwich Victoria must have felt Santa Claus had arrived a week early as they received two gift-wrapped opportunities from their red-and-white clad opponents to book their place in the second round of the FA Trophy.

Centre-back James Dudgeon and David Stockdale conceded needless, first-half penalties which were gleefully converted by Northwich striker Joe Allan and such generosity was always going to be costly from a City team who have found goals as elusive as Xbox 360 consoles during the countdown to Christmas.

Top scorer Andy Bishop did manage to end the club's five-match barren spell by netting his 11th goal of the season in between Allan's spot-kicks but Billy McEwan's men once more failed to test the opposition goalkeeper with any regularity.

Aside from Bishop's goal, Northwich number one Kristian Rogers was only called into action on two further occasions, saving a bobbling, harmless 25-yard effort from Mark Convery on 81 minutes and an equally tame Clayton Donaldson header shortly afterwards.

The performance - against part-time Conference North visitors - provoked understandable frustration and booing from certain sections of the small home crowd at the final whistle and standards must now improve if City are to avoid ending 2005 without a win in nine matches.

Rediscovering some of their attacking verve must be a major priority for the KitKat Crescent club as defeats are even less palatable when goalmouth incident in the opponents' penalty box is at a premium.

But equally, the Minstermen cannot afford a repeat of the defensive mayhem that led to two penalties on Saturday.

Allan had already wasted an excellent chance when he failed to lift his attempted lob over a stranded Stockdale before Dudgeon recklessly hacked down his striking partner Paul Brayson inches inside a crowded penalty box on 11 minutes.

The resulting spot-kick was squeezed under Stockdale's body by a fortunate Allan.

City then showed spirit to enjoy their best spell of the game with Leo Bertos seeing a deft chip bounce narrowly wide and Donaldson going close with a dipping 25-yard volley either side of Bishop's equaliser.

The Minstermen's eight-and-a-half hour wait for a goal was brought to an end when Rogers could only palm a low cross from Convery into Bishop's path and the 23-year-old striker drove into an inviting net from four yards out on 28 minutes.

Northwich, however, led again on 42 minutes after two errors of judgement by Stockdale.

First, the 20-year-old 'keeper hesitated when positive action would have seen him comfortably collect an over-hit forward pass and then he compounded that mistake by lunging at the feet of visiting midfielder Richard Battersby, who was struggling to keep the ball in play several yards away from the City goal.

This time, Allan was more decisive with his penalty, sidefooting firmly to Stockdale's left.

The City 'keeper, whose confidence has looked fragile since his brief return to the first team, suffered the same fate as previous first-choice Chris Porter three weeks earlier when he was substituted at half-time.

But neither Porter nor Rogers were greatly troubled in the second half.

Bertos drove high and wide on 62 minutes after never looking convincing following a clever through ball from Convery, who played with determination having being dropped for City's previous outing against Hereford.

But Northwich almost increased the home side's embarrasment with Allan declining an excellent opportunity to claim his hat-trick seven minutes later.

The former Carlisle striker capitalised on uncertainty from McGurk to charge clear on goal but, surprisingly, elected to centre for Brayson, whose shot was blocked by Dudgeon.

An unmarked Carlos Roca also lifted a volley over the bar from six yards after Brayson's 80th-minute cross.

Bryan Stewart's second-half introduction did give the Minstermen more attacking impetus down the flanks and the 20-year-old winger should be in contention for a starting place against Scarborough along with the likes of Dave Merris and Mark Hotte as the need for changes is obvious.

York City 1 (Bishop 29), Northwich 2 (Allan 11 (pen), 41 (pen))

Stockdale 5 (Porter 46, 6), Andrews 6, McGurk 5, Dudgeon 5, Horwood 5 (Stewart 70, 6), Bertos 5, Convery 6, Barwick 5, Dunning 6, Donaldson 5, Bishop 6

Key: 10 - Faultless; 9 - Outstanding; 8 - Excellent; 7 - Good; 6 - Average; 5 - Below par; 4 - Poor; 3 - Dud; 2 - Hopeless; 1 - Retire

Subs (not used): Hotte, O'Neill, Yalcin

Star man: Convery - always a willing receiver and passer of the ball. Did not lose confidence in his own ability

Northwich Victoria: Rogers, McCarthy, Payne, Charnock, Chapman, Mayman, Battersby, Elliott, Roca (Byrne 90), Allan, Brayson. Subs not used: Garner, Connett, Sale, Devlin.

Yellow cards: Allan 23, Dudgeon 45, Elliott 45, Barwick 64.

Referee: Amy Rayner (Leics). Rating: Spot-on with penalty decisions but maybe whistle-happy and inconsistent with bookable offences.

Attendance: 1,372.

Weather watch: Very chilly with an icy breeze.

Game breaker: Stockdale's lunge at Battersby's feet and falling behind for a second time saw self-doubt creep into City's play again.

Match rating: Largely uninspiring display from City against a team clearly benefitting from winning regular matches in a lower league.

McEwan's verdict: "We went behind to a good team after some of our team started sluggishly, especially at the back.

"We looked something like the team that started the season so brightly after they scored and were on top of the game once we got the goal but you can't legislate for a youngster dropping a clanger."

Player watch - Evan Horwood

Shots on target: 0

Shots off target: 0

Blocked shots: 0

Passes to own player: 18

Passes to opposition: 6

Crosses to own player: 0

Crosses to opposition: 3

Pass success rate: 66.7 per cent

Dribbles ball retained: 0

Dribbles ball lost: 0

Headers: 0 Tackles: 3

Clearances, blocks and interceptions: 4 Offsides: 0

Free kicks won: 1

Free kicks conceded: 0

Yellow cards: 0

Final summary: On-loan Sheffield United left-back Horwood made a patchy home debut. Perhaps playing more inhibited after his mistake at Hereford, he failed to join in many attacks, only making three crosses - not one finding a team-mate - and failing to take on an opponent during his 70 minutes on the pitch. He also, unusually, did not head the ball once and only made three tackles.

Updated: 09:49 Monday, December 19, 2005