FRUSTRATION was the main emotion for York City manager Steve Watson following his side’s 0-0 draw at home to newly promoted Farsley Celtic.

York were tipped as big favourites prior to the game to defeat Farsley - who won promotion from the Northern Premier League last season - after a 3-1 opening day win at Altrincham.

But, City - who were missing key striker Dan Maguire through injury - failed to make many genuine chances and were forced to settle for a point.

While impressed by the effort his group showed, Watson was left disappointed at the quality of their finishing in the final third.

“We didn’t test their keeper enough and you can’t win games of football if you don’t do that,” he said. “We played very well to a point, we had a lot of balls fizzed across goal.”

“It was one of those nights where nothing quite dropped for us, whether that was people making runs too early, particularly from David Ferguson’s crosses in the first half.

“In the second half, it was similar to Altrincham in that we went in drawing and we knew that as the game went on we’d have options from the bench to hopefully win the game.

“But Farsley came out very differently in that second half. They came to frustrate, they put five at the back and had bodies behind the ball.

“It was a frustrating second half. We couldn’t up the pitch at times, we had to try and play through the back to get people out. The people that were getting out where people like Sean Newton, who’s a left-sided centre half.”

York had the better of the chances in the first-half, but Farsley almost snatched the points when Luke Parkin stole a misplaced pass from defence by goalkeeper Peter Jameson.

Fortunately for City, the keeper managed to atone for his error with a fine save.

“That would have been the icing on the cake to a frustrating night had that gone in,” added Watson of the chance.

“It wasn’t through anything that they created, it was from a defensive mistake, so no one’s to blame for that.

“Peter Jameson’s pass has hit Newton’s heel - that happens in football. And then he comes up with a fantastic save. He stood up brilliantly to it.

“I don’t think either of the goalkeepers had a lot to do tonight apart from some handling practise from crosses.

“It was a frustrating night. We were missing Dan Maguire, who’s a big threat. Paddy’s carrying a bit of an injury so we couldn’t really risk him any longer than we did.

“But we still had fire power on the pitch. We had four strikers on the pitch at one point and not one of the them managed to really test the goalkeeper.”