STEVE McNulty was the obvious choice to be York City’s captain for the new season, explained manager Steve Watson.

The York boss made the decision on Friday to announce the captaincy, just a day prior to the club’s opening National League North fixture with Altrincham, which they won 3-1.

He gave the armband to 35-year-old defender McNulty, a summer signing from Tranmere Rovers where he led the Merseyside club to back-to-back promotions from the National League to League 1.

It meant a change in captaincy from striker Jordan Burrow who held the position last season while Sean Newton, Paddy McLaughlin and Andy Bond were also considered for the role.

Watson said the decision was a relatively straight-forward one considering McNulty’s experience in the game.

“I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to work out how we came to the decision to give Steve the captaincy,” laughed Watson.

“He’s been the captain at Tranmere who have had back-to-back promotions in their last two seasons to League 2 and League 1.

“He’s been a natural born leader throughout his career. I brought Steve here to lead, to organise and I think he was the prime candidate for the job.”

McNulty is one of several established operators at this level that Watson has recruited over the off-season along with former Newcastle midfielder Paddy McLaughlin and 33-year-old two-time promotion winner Andy Bond.

Watson felt that experience within his squad proved pivotal in them holding out on their 3-1 lead at Altrincham on Saturday.

“I think we did control things in the second half against Altrincham and I think you would expect that with the good experienced players that we’ve got,” said Watson.

We’ve got Macca (Steve McNulty), Newton, (Joe) Tait, McLaughlin, Burrow and Bondy (Andy Bond).

“I think you would expect them to be able to control a game when we got to the position that we were in.

“With that said, I think we got a little too comfortable and we gave possession away needlessly two or three times.

“As I said before, we’re nowhere near the finished article, there’s still lots of things to work on. But, we’re really happy with that as a start.”