YORK City boss Steve Watson will not accept that any corner has been turned until his team win “four or five games” on the trot.

A 2-1 triumph at Kidderminster saw the Minstermen register their first back-to-back league wins since January 2018, as goals from Kallum Griffiths and Scott Burgess, either side of an equaliser from ex-loan striker Joe Ironside, saw the team build on a 2-0 home win over Ashton United in their previous contest.

The result lifted Watson’s men to 14th in the National League North standings – 12 points clear of the relegation zone and seven adrift of the play-off positions – but the ex-Gateshead chief knows any plaudits must be tempered until a longer string of positive results have been compiled with bottom-of-the-table Nuneaton next up at Bootham Crescent in seven days’ time.

“I am here to change things and be successful and we’re making small steps in the right direction,” Watson reasoned. “But I’d never say we’ve turned a corner, because I want the players to keep improving and wanting to better themselves every week.

“We’ve won two on the trot but it’s only when we can make that four or five that we can maybe start talking about being where this club wants to be and should be. Nobody is getting carried away, but there have been too many low points at this club over the last four seasons and it’s my job to raise positivity and the standards of the players and their expectations.”

Watson admitted, though, that Burgess’ winning goal, coming just eight minutes after Ironside’s second-half equaliser, demonstrated that improvements are being made in terms of the side’s psychological fortitude.

Offering his post-match verdict, the City boss added: “A lot went right, and the players did the jobs I asked them to do for the most part.

“We played really well in the first half and made lots of good decisions. We also ended up with two very good goals against a good Kidderminster side, who had a lot of possession.

“We knew we would have long spells without the ball, but our shape was good, and we remained solid. It was a good away performance and I felt you could see the progression we have made in six games mentally because, when we conceded second-half goals when I first arrived, the heads and focus dropped, so the best thing about the game was the reaction to their equaliser.” Watson’s biggest disappointment was the manner in which Ironside bundled home Liam McAlinden’s free kick inside the visitors’ penalty box, but the ex-Everton defender argued that a foul should not have been awarded against Sean Newton on Kane Richards.

“It was a poor goal to concede and we knocked off after having defended set-pieces better against a team that are corner specialists,” Watson pointed out. “Barts (Adam Bartlett) might have come and got it, but I was disappointed that nobody took responsibility in that situation.

“That was a small aspect of a very good performance, however, and I didn’t think it was a free kick either. People are saying we need to stop players diving, but I don’t think we will for as long as referees let players get free kicks as easily as that.”

Both marksmen have been dropped from the team previously by Watson, but the City boss revealed that he is now closer to settling on a dependable starting line-up, with just one change made from the first XI that took the field against Ashton.

“Kallum and Scott are two players who have been in and out of the team, but I’m starting to get to a situation where I feel that that I don’t have to make five or six changes every week,” Watson said. “We just changed a bit and went with Paddy McLaughlin instead of Jake Wright to make us a bit more solid away from home, rather than going with four strikers again.”

With leading marksman Burrow having been on target in all 11 of City’s previous wins since August bank-holiday Monday, Watson was also pleased to see two new names on the scoresheet, as Griffiths and Burgess celebrated their first goals for the club.

“They were two pieces of individual brilliance with their weaker foot and you have to get goals from everywhere,” Watson declared. “We need people chipping in from midfield and from the back at set-plays, which we still need to work on.

“We also probably had better situations than the goals that we didn’t score from because of our end product, so that has to improve too.”

Watson went on to suggest, meanwhile, that on-loan, 21-year-old Bury midfielder Burgess is adapting to the robust nature of sixth-tier football.

“I don’t think its Scott Burgess’ natural game to battle and battle, but he is getting better and better with that and, if you give him time on the ball, he has that composure that was perhaps lacking in the team before,” Watson explained. “I think he was perhaps a bit surprised with the pace and power of this league at first, as he was when he joined Macclesfield (last season).

“It’s different to playing for Bury under-23s but, in the last two games, his energy levels have been very good, and he is very good technically. He’s adding the physical side to his game and, when things are going wrong, he stays reliable and calm on the ball, which proved to be the case late on.”