YORK City boss Martin Gray would welcome a switch to Friday-night football but admits that any change might have to wait until the move to Monks Cross.

Members of the Bootham Crescent faithful reacted with great regret and sadness on learning that the 1-0 midweek victory over Stockport last week is currently scheduled as the final evening contest to be staged at the much-cherished 86-year-old ground.

That, of course, could change given potential postponements or cup replays but Gray feels the club will not be in a position to rearrange any Saturday afternoon fixtures by choice, as a means of creating more matches under the lights before the gates are closed for a final time this summer.

Over the last three-and-a-bit seasons – when the club have sunk to their lowest ebb in the football pyramid – midweek home matches have delivered a respectable win rate of 50 per cent, as opposed to the significantly less successful 37 per cent figure that can be attributed to 3pm kick-offs on Saturday afternoons.

The game against ex-Football League foes Stockport was played out amid a cauldron of noise that all involved agreed served as a 12th man for the hosts, but the club’s board have stressed that Friday night games are not under consideration and Gray does not believe National League North rivals would be in favour of such a move.

Promotion into the largely full-time division above would, seemingly, present the best chance of changing to Gray’s preferred kick-off time when the next challenge would be to recreate that unique Bootham night-time atmosphere at the new community stadium.

“I love the night games here and, as a player or manager, it’s just a different atmosphere and seems better,” Gray said. “I’d love to play on Friday nights, because you’d have everybody coming in looking forward to the weekend and I think it would be brilliant.

“We’d probably also get a lot of floating fans – maybe 200 or 300 – who might watch their football somewhere else on a Saturday. We’d need the agreement of other clubs to do it, so I don’t think it will happen this season, because part-time clubs would regard it as giving us an advantage if they’re coming over from Lancashire after a day’s work but, going forward, it would be great to play on Friday nights at the new stadium.”

Macaulay Langstaff’s opening goal during Tuesday night’s 2-0 triumph at Ashton United, meanwhile, ended a club drought on the road that had equalled the worst sequence for 42 years.

The Minstermen had failed to net during five successive contests at Nuneaton (0-1), Gainsborough (0-1), FC United of Manchester (0-1), Brackley (0-2) and Chorley (0-1).

Another barren scoresheet would have seen City match the six away games without a goal that Wilf McGuinness’ 1975/76 side suffered from September to November during the club’s second division relegation campaign, although Chelsea and Southampton were among the host teams during that sequence.

Since then, only Chris Brass’ relegated Football League outfit of 2003/4 have failed to hit the target during five consecutive games on their travels.

The unwanted club record, meanwhile, belongs to Tom Lockie’s 1963/64 team who, despite boasting all-time club record marksman Norman Wilkinson in their ranks, endured a run of seven straight fixtures without getting on the scoresheet.

City’s class of 2018/19 also avoided the worst run of away defeats on the trot since Jackie McNamara oversaw the club’s second relegation from the Football League in 2016, returning from eight trips without any reward.

The club record for away losses on the spin stands at 11 and is shared by the 1968/69 division four side, as well as the group of players who ended and kicked off the 1925/26 and 1926/27 Midland League campaigns.

Elsewhere, summer signing Joe Tait heads both The Press Player of the Month and Year contests four fixtures into the new campaign.

Tait jumped to the head of each leaderboard after being our choice as man of the match during Tuesday night’s 2-0 victory at Ashton United and also topping the online Twitter poll. He collected three points for the former honour and two for the latter.

The other Press points awarded for the Ashton win went to Kallum Griffiths (two) and Tom Allan (one) as our second and third-highest rated performers respectively.

During last weekend’s 2-1 home defeat to Alfreton, the Press points were shared between Jon Parkin (three), Langstaff (two) and Adam Bartlett (one). Langstaff received the two Player of the Month bonus points on offer.

The Press Player of the Year standings: Tait 4, Griffiths 3, Newton 3, Parkin 3, York 3, Langstaff 2, Penn 2, Wright 2, Allan 1, Bartlett 1.

The Press Player of the Month standings for August: Tait 6, Langstaff 4, Penn 4, Wright 4, Griffiths 3, Newton 3, Parkin 3, York 3, Allan 1, Bartlett 1.

Goals: Langstaff 2, Tait 1, York 1.

Assists: Burrow 1, Griffiths 1, Langstaff 1, Parkin 1

Bad Boys: Wright two yellow cards, Bencherif, Heslop, Kempster, Newton, Tait, Wright all one yellow.