YORK City interviewed five shortlisted candidates before appointing Steve Watson as their new manager.

The Minstermen’s sporting director Dave Penney has also revealed that no compensation will be due to Gateshead after Watson left the National League outfit to take up the Bootham Crescent vacancy.

Declaring that opting for Watson as the sacked Sam Collins’ successor was a straightforward choice, Penney confessed: “It wasn’t a hard decision.

“We liked Steve’s enthusiasm and his presence. He obviously had a great career as a player, but you have to back that up on the training pitch, because you’ll soon be found out by players if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

“He’s done very well at Gateshead considering the players they lost over the summer, as we know because we nicked four of them. Five people were interviewed, and we had plenty of interest from people who have worked above and below where we are now.

“The merry-go-round has changed a bit since August when Martin Gray left the club, so there were different candidates, as some are now employed, whilst others had become available, but we felt that Steve was the right man to take us forward for the rest of the season and moving into the new stadium.”

When asked if Gateshead wouldn’t receive a compensation payment following the departure of both Watson and his assistant Micky Cummins, Penney added: “That’s right.”

On his sadness at parting company with Collins, meanwhile, Penney admitted: “It’s never an easy decision to change manager and it’s not a nice situation.

“Sam did well initially with results, but it didn’t lead to the momentum we wanted to see. No targets have been set for Steve now, but we just want to improve and get some momentum going at the club.

“We want the players and our supporters to be excited about what we’re trying to do here.”

Penney went on to predict that there will be no shortage of interested parties if Watson wants to move players on to further facilitate the recruitment of potential transfer targets.

“The beauty of this club is that, whichever players are out of the side at the weekend, we always get phone calls from clubs on Monday morning about them asking whether they would be available, so there is scope to change this group,” the former Doncaster boss revealed.