YORK City boss Martin Gray admitted he is “scratching his head” in search of an explanation for his team’s inconsistency.

The fourth-placed Minstermen suffered an 11th National League North defeat of the season when Dan Bradley’s brace earned play-off rivals Kidderminster a 2-1 win with Sean Newton’s stoppage-time reply a mere consolation.

A frustrated Gray said: “We cleared the air after the game. There was no screaming or shouting, but I’ve asked the players why we are inconsistent, because I’m scratching my head and, until we get a winning mentality, we won’t go forward as a club again.

“We can’t seem to put really strong back-to-back performances together and I want points in the bag as soon as possible, because I don’t want to be going to Brackley on the last game of the season needing a point or whatever for the play-offs. We’ve got eight matches left to play and there are still things we need to learn quickly.

“With the first-half chances, it could have been 5-5 and it was too open a game. But, in the second half, they punished us for two mistakes and we ended up 2-0 down.

“Our decision making in the final third was not very good all night.”

Gray added that Simon Heslop is expected to be out for a few weeks with a stomach strain that saw him replaced at half-time.