THE enforced break from football action has been a difficult period for all players, but perhaps even more so for York City’s Adam Buxton.

Just days after he had made a promising debut start in York’s 3-1 win at Alfreton Town after joining on loan from Morecambe, the coronavirus pandemic halted any further regular season action in the Vanarama National League North.

With only two York appearances to his name, Buxton’s time at the club looked to be over, but the club last week confirmed that he is part of their squad for the play-offs, which begin today at home to Altrincham.

After the arrival of Derek Adams at Morecambe in November, Buxton was deemed surplus to requirements and has not made a single appearance under the boss, prompting the move to York.

“Obviously, when you don’t see eye-to-eye with a manager and they start drifting you out, you come into training on your own, you’re training with the kids,” Buxton told The Press.

“You’re not involved on the Saturday and then you train all week for nothing at the weekend. It can really affect you mentally and, to be honest, I had started to fall out of love with the game.

“I’ve come back, put myself in a position where I’m enjoying my football again. It’s great being around the lads and I get on well with the gaffer.

“I came to York to play football. I spoke to the gaffer (Steve Watson) about falling back in love with the game and to start enjoying playing again.

“To then only get one start under my belt, it was frustrating. I thought that I could come here, (play) until the end of the season, get promotion and see what happens from there.

“Obviously, it hit a stop. But now I’m looking forward to these two play-off games and hopefully we can get the job done”, added Buxton, who may feature when York face Altrincham tomorrow afternoon.

It was York captain Steve McNulty, an ex-team-mate of Buxton’s at Tranmere, who first got in touch with the 28-year-old.

“I’ve always kept in contact and been quite close with Macca.

“The gaffer saw the situation that I was in and said to him (McNulty) ‘Would he come?’, as I’ve not played at this level before.

“Macca rang me and said ‘Steve Watson has asked if you’d come and join York.’

“I wasn’t too sure about the level, but when the gaffer rang me, he said ‘Come and start enjoying your football again. I know the situation that you’re in, I’ve been there myself and it’s not nice. There’s a good set of lads here, we’re fighting at the right end of the table and it’ll be good for you.’”

While at Tranmere, Buxton and McNulty played in three play-off finals, winning two of those to see the club go from the National League to League One in the space of two seasons.

“I do have experience of the play-offs and hopefully I can rub that off on the rest of the lads,” said Buxton.

“It’s about keeping your head, staying calm and not letting the game swallow you up.

“We can’t get caught up in the emotions of the game and we’ve got to take it as just another game.

“I think that if we can do that, then we should be fine.

“The first time that we played in the play-offs, we went down to London two or three days before the game, watched a game the day before and, to be honest with you, we got caught up in it a bit too much.

“The second time, we treated it as a normal game and then you get the job done.

“If you get caught up in the emotion, nerves kick and people can freeze. If you just take it as another game, that can stand us in good stead to get the right result.”

Two wins are now all that separate York from promotion.

“There’s two big games coming up for us to get promoted and to get York in the league above where they should be. I believe that if we can go up (this year), then we can go up again.”