YORK City boss Steve Watson wants to register the club’s first back-to-back league victories in 13 months and then target a third consecutive win at the weekend.

The new Minstermen chief succeeded in ending an eight-game losing National League North away streak with a 3-2 success at Alfreton on Saturday and now aims to end another sorry sequence.

City have not won two sixth-tier contests on the trot since five consecutive victories were racked up in January 2018.

But the next two matches will see the 16th-placed Minstermen host bottom-four clubs Hereford and Ashton United tomorrow night and on Saturday respectively.

Maximum points against the Bulls will mean that Watson’s side have climbed six positions in the league standings in just four days and, on ending another hoodoo, the former Gateshead boss reasoned: “All these records are just coming to light for me, but my job is simple – I just want to win every game I’m involved in.

“Hearing about these things doesn’t change my mentality, but records are there to be broken so, if we can put that one to bed and win two successive games, all the better and I want three back-to-back wins. If you find a level of consistency in this division, you can soon travel a fair distance up the table and, if we can keep playing with the same energy and gusto that we finished the last match, then I can see us climbing.”

Watson still hopes to have a fifth signing in place for the visit of the Bulls to Bootham Crescent, but the move has hit a little snag, with the ex-Everton defender revealing: “The player picked up a bit of an injury and has had to have a scan as a precautionary measure so we’re waiting to see whether we can have him in the squad for tomorrow.”

Right-sided centre-back Hamza Bencherif, meanwhile, is not expected to feature after an ankle injury saw him hobble out of the action at Alfreton, with a recall for club stalwart Dan Parslow one possibility.

“People have the right to say ‘the team have been struggling all season, so don’t I deserve my chance’, and some do,” Watson added.

Josh Law dropped back from midfield into the centre of the back three at the weekend but, while Watson suggested he is unlikely to repeat that switch from the start against Hereford, it is an option he could consider moving forward.

“Josh almost sees himself as a sweeper or a deep-lying midfielder and I have to be allowed to see what players can do with my own eyes,” Watson declared. “He has impressed me with his reading of games and being in the right position.

“I probably wouldn’t play him at the back for the next game, but I might look at it in the future.”

Watson expects Hereford to field his favoured formation of 3-5-2 and admits the system is now one he wants to proceed with at his new club, having lined up in that manner for the last two fixtures.

“I don’t want to change systems every week and, whilst it might seem a little difficult to justify because of the goals we have conceded (six in two matches), most have been down to individual errors that we can cut out,” the former England under-21 international argued. “It’s a formation that I believe in and works if you do it right with a good balance.”

Centre-back David Mirfin, 33, is set to make his home debut after impressing at Alfreton, with Watson willing to allow the on-loan Mansfield defender to oversee his own workload to get the best out of him on the pitch.

“David’s situation is similar to when I brought Mike Williamson in at Gateshead,” Watson pointed out. “He hasn’t played a lot of football, but they are both good pros who manage themselves well in between games.

“I’m allowing him to go through his own injury programme, so he wasn’t involved in training today, but he will be ready and raring to go having done everything absolutely correctly for himself.”

The City boss has also given a pep-talk to rookie centre-half Tom Bradbury ahead of the Hereford contest after he was given a chastening experience at the hands of cunning journeyman striker Reece Styche over the weekend.

“I’ve had a chat with Tom about certain aspects of Saturday’s game and he was quite philosophical, because he’s level-headed,” Watson explained. “At his age, players are like sponges and I like to have that in my squad, along with the right sprinkling of experience.”