YORK City caretaker manager Sam Collins believes 21-year-old forward Macaulay Langstaff is setting an example for more senior pros after scoring his fourth goal of the season.

Langstaff netted City’s first goal – a 16th-minute equaliser – during the Minstermen’s 4-2 National League North home victory over Guiseley.

His effort cancelled out Kingsley James’ penalty for the visitors and the former Gateshead forward was then joined on the scoresheet by Jordan Burrow and Sean Newton, who bagged a brace.

Sub Scott Smith went on to grab a consolation for the Leeds side, by which time Langstaff had made way for 70th-minute substitute Wes York, but Collins was full of praise for the Northern League graduate’s work ethic, saying: “He’s a brilliant kid with a brilliant attitude, who just wants to get better and better.

“He’s full of pace and endeavour and he’ll chase everything on the pitch. Although he’s a younger player, I think the older lads then follow his example too.”

Following the 5-0 FA Cup third qualifying round victory over Ashton Athletic, Collins has now masterminded the Minstermen’s first back-to-back victories since mid-January, although there were still elements of the performance against Guiseley that he felt could have been improved upon.

Summarising his team’s victory over an away team who kicked off the afternoon unbeaten in nine fixtures, Collins reasoned: “I was pleased with a lot of things, but I still think we can be better in certain areas of the game.

“We had to get to grips with their formation in the first ten minutes, because it was different to the 4-5-1 system they’ve been playing all season, which we thought would suit us with Josh Law and Sean Newton stepping out of defence. After that, I then thought we did really well in the first half and could have had three or four goals by half-time and I was really pleased with the character we showed because we could have gone 2-0 down.

“In the second half, there were periods of the game when we played well, but parts where we needed to be more consistent with our use of the ball. We did score another couple of goals, but I believe performance levels win you games as well.”

Collins made a defensive reshuffle for the final 20 minutes of the game and admitted that Hamza Bencherif’s introduction for Kallum Griffiths was influenced by a desire to combat the visitors’ long-throw threat.

For the first time this season, meanwhile, City did not name a recognised goalkeeper on the bench.

Collins’ former manager Neil Warnock regularly did the same before the seven-substitute rule was introduced at Football League level, relying on Phil Jagielka as his back-up keeper at Sheffield United and, if he continues as City boss, the one-time Huddersfield defender confessed that it might become a regular policy under him, explaining: “I wanted to give us more options on the bench, with an extra outfield player and I can see me doing that in the future.

“It gives you really good alternatives because we wanted Hamza (Bencherif) on there if we needed to deal with their physical side. Everybody also knows what Jon (Parkin) is about, while Wes York and Jake Wright give you plenty of legs and Russ Penn can come on and manage as game, as he did for us.”