KEEPER Adam Bartlett has admitted that he felt York City’s next opponents Kidderminster Harriers had 13 players on the pitch in the three games between the clubs last season.

With international call-ups for Nuneaton meaning the Minstermen are without a National League North fixture this weekend, the fifth-placed Harriers will provide Bartlett and his team-mates’ next challenge when they arrive at Bootham Crescent a week on Saturday.

Last season, Kidderminster enjoyed 2-1 home victories over City in the league and FA Trophy, after sharing the points in North Yorkshire during a 1-1 draw.

The Midlands outfit went on to finish fourth in the standings before missing out on promotion through the play-offs for a second successive campaign.

Since then, though, boss John Eustace has departed and been replaced by former Coventry City caretaker manager Neil MacFarlane, with Bartlett admitting it will be interesting to see whether his ex-employers are still the division’s “best passing” outfit.

“I’ll be playing against my third old club in a row,” said the ex-Blyth and Hereford keeper. “Last season, they were the best passing team in the league and, during the three times I played against them, they moved the ball around very, very well so, at times, it felt like they had 13 players on the pitch.

“They’ve since brought in some experienced players and our fans know all about Ashley Chambers, who has started well there and we’ll be expecting a tough game, as most are against the more-established teams in the league.

“But the manager has left to join up with Steve McClaren at QPR, so it will be interesting to see how they play. It might be differently, but we’ll do a bit of video and tactical work on them with (caretaker manager) Sam (Collins) and have them thoroughly scouted.”

If Collins is still in charge, the Kidderminster match will represent the fourth of his temporary tenure and Bartlett reckons the former Huddersfield defender has taken full advantage of his familiarity with the squad, as the club’s youth-team manager, to take five points from a possible nine with the senior side.

“He’s done well,” Bartlett reasoned. “He’s adapted our style a little and he’s been fortunate that, in his role at the club before, he was able to watch all our home games in pre-season and in the league, along with the away games on DVD, so he’s picked up on a few things he wanted to change personnel and formation wise.

“We’d all rather be playing this weekend because we’re five games unbeaten and you want to keep that run going, but the manager is perhaps looking at it as two weeks to implement his style a bit more.”

Having worked under departed manager Martin Gray both with City and Darlington, where the former Sunderland midfielder masterminded three promotions, Bartlett also expects his former boss to prosper in his next job.

“Martin took me to Darlington and York, so I was very disappointed it didn’t quite work out for him here, but I know he’ll bounce back wherever that is,” Bartlett declared. “He gave York City everything he had.

“Results didn’t go his way during the back end of last season and were indifferent at the start of this one, so the club felt it was time to make a change, but I’m sure he still wants us to be successful and, hopefully, we will be.”

Bartlett went on to concede that the final result at Edgar Street last weekend represented a fair outcome but could have been different had the players stuck to Collins’ game-plan, which he feels will be the key to further progress under the ex-Hartlepool caretaker manager.

Summarising his thoughts on the 1-1 draw, the City net-minder added: “It was a fair result. I played at Hereford for three years and I know what it’s like defending the Meadow End up the slope in second halves with all the home fans in there, cheering them forward.

“Our first-half performance was good, but we went away from our game-plan a bit in the second. It’s been evident in our last few games, that we’ve been a bit more patient on the ball and we wanted to exploit Hereford’s older boys at the back with our pace, which we did at times, as we did against Blyth.

“But we went a bit more direct after we’d had a lot of joy in the first half keeping the ball and playing out from the back. We need to do that for longer periods of games and, just because we’re winning 1-0, we don’t have to go away from the game-plan.

“But Hereford is tough place to go and they aren’t a bad side and I think we are building something at the moment.”

Bartlett faced more shots on target (eight) at Hereford than he has in any other match this term as City created fewer opportunities than their opponents for the first time since the 1-0 opening-day defeat to current league leaders Chorley.

But the former Gateshead and Hartlepool keeper argued that he didn’t feel overworked, insisting: “I made one decent save in the second half, but everything else was relatively routine and I would have been disappointed if any of the other shots had beaten me.”

Elsewhere, City’s youth team will travel to Tadcaster Albion in the first qualifying round of the FA Youth Cup after winning 3-1 at Handsworth Parramore during their first tie in the competition, with Isaac Overton, Nathan Dyer and Aston Harrison the marksmen.