YORK City’s new manager Steve Watson will not entertain any thoughts of relegation despite the club now sitting just one place above the National League North drop zone.

A 4-1 home defeat to leaders Chorley means the Minstermen are also now just four points clear of the bottom three, with Ashton United having won their last two matches to reduce that gap.

City have lost 12 of their last 18 matches but, while Watson has admitted back-to-back defeats against the division’s top-two teams have given him a realistic take on the team’s ability to make a late charge for the higher reaches, he insists he will continue to look up the standings rather than over his shoulder.

“I expected a tough start during the first two games and that’s certainly what I’ve had, but I came here to learn as much as I can this season, while trying to make a run up the table,” he reasoned. “Two defeats in hasn’t changed my mind about what I want to achieve this season.

“It might have changed my mind about our ability to do it, but it still has to be the goal. I’m not a manager who is going to start thinking about relegation.

“I think positive and I want to kick on and get promotion next season by building a team that can, at least, get into the play-offs, so people need to show me that they want to be on board with that or tell me otherwise.”

Watson went on to confirm that he would like to replace all five loan players that have returned to their parent clubs this month.

He has already filled three of those spaces by drafting in Paddy McLauglin, Scott Burgess and Tom Bradbury, who all started against Chorley, but won’t be rushed into his next transfer-market moves, declaring: “I can’t panic and whoever we bring in has to be right for us and play in the right positions.

“There are still two or three positions I know we can improve on, but we need the right characters. One of the biggest disappointments is that, when we’re under the cosh, people start sitting back rather than going forward.

“That’s hard to change two-thirds into a season, but we’ve got to do that.”

City were 2-0 behind just past the quarter-hour mark as Scott Leather and Courtney Meppen-Walter netted for the visitors.

Jordan Burrow reduced the deficit before half-time with his 14th goal of the season when he followed up to net after his penalty had been saved by Magpies keeper Matt Urwin.

But the Lancashire outfit wrapped up matters with further efforts from Josh Wilson and Alex Newby, with Watson identifying a struggle to defend crosses as the team’s most concerning trait during his two games at the helm, with this reverse following the 3-1 loss at Stockport.

“I felt this performance was a bit better than the scoreline because we got forward a lot more and created better chances than we did at Stockport,” the ex-Gateshead chief added. “But the goals against were awful again.

“I said last week that one of Stockport’s goals was the worst I’d ever been involved in as a manager, but I think Chorley’s first was even worse. It was terrible and the timing of it was virtually the same as when the first went in at Stockport.

“There was no pace on the cross, but we didn’t deal with it. For the second, we gave away a free kick in a dangerous area, which we’ve spoke about brushing up upon.

“In the second half, they then put three balls into our box and scored from two that we didn’t deal with. We’ve conceded seven goals in two games and four or five have been from crosses delivered into the box, which speaks for itself.

“We didn’t get any free headers in their box, but they had three or four in ours. We know what we need to work on, and I’ve changed the personnel twice, but the same things have happened.”

Watson fielded his favoured 3-5-2 formation for the first time against Chorley and argued: “I don’t think the result had anything to do with the system.”

On the performances of Bradbury, McLaughlin and Burgess, meanwhile, he said: “Young Tom won a lot of headers and was quite good on the ball. I think he can become a good player for us, although it was a tough game for him, as the aggression with which he was closed down will have been different to the under-23 games he has been playing.

“He seems a good type, but he’ll also have to take a look at the goals and see what part he played in them. Paddy kept going and was composed and competitive.

“Scott needs to learn a bit more about awareness without the ball, but he showed a lot of energy when he travelled with it.”

The City boss went on to reveal that Adriano Moke wasn’t in the squad, because he had declared himself injured on the day of the game.