YORK City boss Billy McEwan heralded some of his team's football as "delightful" during yesterday's 3-2 victory over Aldershot.

The Minstermen moved back into eighth position in the Conference after goals from Mark Convery, Andy Bishop and Clayton Donaldson and kept their play-off hopes alive by closing the gap on fifth-placed Morecambe to seven points.

But McEwan was particularly pleased with the standard of his team's performance on a KitKat Crescent pitch that he described as "awful".

The problem with compacted soil meant one large area of the ground was reduced to a mud-bath because of rain.

Other sections of the pitch were also badly affected and McEwan said: "We showed cameos of what we are capable and I thought some of our football was delightful in such atrocious conditions. The pitch is awful, rubbish and not conducive to our style of playing but, having said that, some of the stuff we did play was very encouraging.

"It was a well-deserved win and we showed a lot of character after going 1-0 down. We then knocked off in terms of concentration a little when we went 3-1 up and I think we went into easy mode and nearly got punished but we came through."

McEwan also switched to a 4-4-2 formation for the match, handing Neil Bishop his debut as the extra midfielder with Joe O'Neill benched.

David McGurk and Nathan Peat were also preferred in defence to Mark Hotte and Dave Merris and McEwan said: "The performance was not about systems, it was about the players and the effort and enthusiasm they put in was first-class.

"I thought Neil Bishop settled in very well considering how long he's been here and, once he gets used to the tempo of how we want to play, he will get a lot better as well. Nathan Peat will also be quite pleased with the way he played."

Never on a Sunday

City''s experiment with Sunday football has failed to win over manager Billy McEwan.

Yesterday's attendance of 2,401 was neither disappointing or hugely encouraging, but said McEwan: "I'm not really a lover of Sunday football. People usually spend Sunday with their families and I don't think the games generate atmosphere.

"I'm not a traditionalist but I think Saturdays are for the women to go shopping and the men to go to the pub and watch football."

Updated: 11:28 Monday, February 13, 2006