STEVE WATSON has hailed the “professional, solid team performance” from his York City side as they moved three points clear at the top of the National League North table with a 3-0 win over King’s Lynn.

David Ferguson created the opener for Andy Bond and then scored the second before Joe Tait’s late header added to the margin of victory.

King’s Lynn were third in the table before the game and despite being competitive throughout the 90 minutes, York came away as decisive winners.

"In an ideal world, you’d win and play well every week,” said Watson of his side’s display.

“But I thought it was a really professional, solid team performance.

“Everybody did their job and did their part. Our defence was good.

“Harry (Spratt) there at the end, got himself in an unbelievable defensive position to stop a shot at goal. He can take a lot of credit from that performance.

“A few weeks ago we were struggling to fill the bench because of injuries and people out on loan.

“But we’ve got three lads who’ve done absolutely nothing wrong in Tom Allan, Wes (York) and Macaulay Langstaff, who haven’t made the bench.

“We are a squad, a together squad. Those lads need to be mentioned alongside the lads on the pitch."

King’s Lynn had the majority of the ball during the game but York always retained a sense of control throughout with their division-best defence fighting to a third straight clean sheet.

“We didn’t have as much possession as usual,” added Watson. “But, we knew that (was going to happen), we had a game plan.

“We knew how King’s Lynn would play. We knew that they were a possession-based team that like to play out from the back and like to have a lot of the ball.

“We allowed them to do that in their own half. We kept our shape really well and we didn’t get impatient.

“I think in the stadium sometimes people were getting impatient because we didn’t have the ball.

"But really we were allowing them to play, but only in front of us.

“They’re a technically good side with a lot of quality. We penetrated and took the chances when we got them.

“We were clinical when we needed to be. We stuck to our plan and it’s worked for us.

“It’s frustrating when you do realise that people are getting frustrated that we haven’t got the ball because we do work all week on a way to play without the ball.

“I picked a side and I look at how the opposition plays. I think about how we can be solid, first of all, which I always try and start with.

“We’ve done enough work on us going forward and we’ve scored another three goals.

“When the second goal went in, my first thought was, ‘let’s keep a clean sheet’. We wanted another one because this season our defensive record has been superb.

“Maybe they will feel a bit hard done by by the final score, but I’m not too bothered about that. There’s only one number that matters to me and that’s our points tally.”