YORK City boss Sam Collins welcomed “positive signs” following his team’s 3-1 FA Trophy triumph at Kidderminster.

But the ex-Hartlepool and Huddersfield defender insisted his team were by no means the “finished article” having ended a win-less, six-game run that had included five defeats.

Jordan Burrow’s brace, either side of Lewis Hawkins’ first goal for the club, put City in the ascendancy before Lee Vaughan replied for the hosts and Adam Bartlett saved an Ed Williams penalty as the visitors defeated a fifth-placed Kiddy team, who lie 12 positions above them in the National League North table.

But, with back-to-back home games against FC United of Manchester and Leamington up next, Collins has reiterated that his players must fulfil their true potential in every fixture as they look to climb the league standings.

Having seen his side lose their previous game 3-0 at Altrincham, the City boss admitted: “Sometimes, I get frustrated because I see that (the team’s performance against Kidderminster) Monday to Friday and I don’t see it enough when it actually matters.

“We’re not the finished article by any means, but there were a lot of positive signs and I was really pleased with our reaction from the Altrincham game. Some of our football, in the first half especially, was excellent in terms of our inter-play and quick counter-attacking with quality and I was also delighted with the character and work-rate of the players in a difficult game against a good team.

“In the second half, we didn’t press well enough or get up the pitch at times, but we had people putting their bodies on the line and throwing themselves in front of things and that’s what football is all about. Lewis Hawkins made a brilliant block after Adam Bartlett saved their penalty.

“That type of thing is what I enjoyed doing as a player and I think I’ve got an honest group of players who want to do well.”

With his team coming under a little pressure late on, Collins also suggested that there is a time for employing the game’s darker arts in the quest to preserve victory, pointing out: “I played against Graham Westley’s teams and they were brilliant at taking the sting out of games.

“His players would go down when they weren’t injured, and the opposition would get really frustrated, but there’s nothing wrong with managing games at the right times.”

Collins made a tactical tweak to his team, meanwhile, as he opted for a 4-2-3-1 formation that saw Hawkins, Alex Harris and Alex Bray all encouraged to provide attacking support for lone central-striker Burrow.

With Burrow and Hawkins getting on the scoresheet, while Harris and Bray claimed assists, it proved a successful approach and Collins added: “We changed the system a little bit, having had a look at it in the reserve game against Sheffield Wednesday during the week.

“I wanted to go with a lot of pace and energy in the team and on the bench, because I thought that could cause Kidderminster problems.”

With loan recruits Joe Ironside and Kennedy Digie both ruled out against their parent club, Harris and Joe Tait received recalls to the team, while teenager Nathan Dyer was preferred to Josh Law at right back.

Outlining the reasons for that decision, Collins explained: “Knowing that they’d probably play with a diamond, I thought there would be a bit of space for Nathan to travel with the ball, which is one of his biggest strengths at this moment in time.

“Every time he’s played in the first team, he’s done really well, and he did well again against good players.”

Tait, returning after a three-game suspension, was replaced late on, but Collins expects him to be in contention for Saturday’s meeting with FC United at Bootham Crescent.

“I think he’ll be OK,” the City chief declared. “He’s had a few weeks off when he’s missed games and we’ve pushed him really hard in training, so it might have been a consequence of that.

“We’ll have to see how he is, but it was probably fatigue more than anything else and we took Alex Harris off for the same reason.”

Collins went on to add that striker Jon Parkin attending a book-signing session at the Barnsley v Doncaster match between two of his former clubs was not related to his absence from the City squad at Aggborough.

“He’s a professional footballer the same as all the others,” Collins said. “I had to pick what in my mind was the strongest team and bench and that had nothing to do with him signing books in Barnsley.

“I went with the squad I wanted and told Jon the reasons the day before the game. I don’t know if he was happy with that, but I did what I had to do.”