Targets in mind if City's loan duo go back

Stamp made the final appearance of his three-month loan spell during Saturday's excellent 5-0 home win over Crawley Town while Goodliffe is due to return to Broadhall Way after the January 20 trip to Kidderminster.

McEwan has signalled his desire to keep Goodliffe, who was presented with his Press Player of the Month for December award on Saturday, until the end of the season and he would also like to talk to Stevenage about Stamp who, despite not scoring for City in 11 outings, has played an important role in two impressive victories over Crawley and play-off rivals Morecambe in the club's last two matches.

But, should Stevenage decide the two players' futures lie elsewhere, McEwan has already targeted possible replacements before the transfer window closes again at the end of the month.

He said: "Darryn's loan is up now and we have got to look at that situation. We've changed things around a bit tactically recently which has suited him, as well as a few of the other players, but Stevenage's chairman is away in America so we have not been able to discuss anything.

"From what I have heard, I think they are looking to sell him but we have not got the money to buy him so we will have to wait and see.

"Stevenage may also call Jason back after the Kidderminster game and I've got to have players in place if that happens.

"I've got a couple in mind and there's more than a few irons in the fire but hopefully we might be able to keep Jason until the end of the season."

McEwan is, meanwhile, planning on relying on the services of top scorer Clayton Donaldson until the summer at least.

City's board are placing a £500,000 price tag on their coveted leading marksman, who took his tally for the season to 20 following his brace against Crawley and the City boss said: "He's under contract here until the end of the season and, as far as I am concerned, he will be a York City player until then. After that, we will look at his situation."

McEwan was also delighted to see Craig Farrell and Steve Bowey join Donaldson on the scoresheet for the second successive match.

Captain Emmanuel Panther opened his account at KitKat Crescent as well and the captain's indefatigable display, along with that of hard-working trio Bowey, Farrell and Neal Bishop, must have been at the forefront of the City manager's mind when he praised his side's impressive stamina against Crawley.

He said: "Our fitness levels delighted me more than anything because we had players making 40-yard runs forward with five minutes to go at 5-0 up. We are quite strong in the midfield department and have a lot of energy in the team.

"We also talked a couple of weeks ago about the need for goals from other areas of the squad as you can't expect one player to score all of them. The players have taken that on board and have responded well in the last two matches."

Despite his side's biggest victory of 2006-07, equalling the 5-0 trouncing of Altrincham last season as his best result since taking over at the club, McEwan still saw room for improvement though, saying: "Crawley could have got a couple of goals because we went into sloppy mode after going 2-0 up and Tom (Evans) had to make a couple of good saves because we got careless.

"We did the same at Morecambe and you can't take your foot off the throttle against anybody if you are going to do anything in this league."

McEwan's only other disappointment was the size of the KitKat Crescent crowd.

A total of 2,590 turned up and, while praising his club's loyal fans, McEwan added: "We had 500 supporters missing from the last game and there were even one or two fans groaning when we were 5-0 up. That was staggering. I don't know what they want - blood?"

City now have a fortnight break between games because of their exit from the FA Trophy and McEwan said: "That could be a blessing in disguise because we have had a tough schedule and will be able to re-energise after having a few players with the sniffles."