YORK City have said they are "hopeful" that the capacity at the LNER Community Stadium will be increased to 4,250 ahead of Saturday's game against Brackley Town.

The capacity at the Community Stadium has been restricted to around a quarter of its 8,500 capacity thus far, with the York Stadium Management Company (SMC) - which is wholly owned by York City - not providing sufficient safety evidence to the City of York Council and the Safety Advisory Group (SAG).

In a club statement, York City said that the SMC, along with Gll, the Council and SAG, are continuing to "work closely... to facilitate the increase in capacity at the LNER Community Stadium from its current level of 2,128.

"t is the SAG’s intention to reconsider the safe working capacity of the LNER Community Stadium as early as possible this week.

"All stakeholders remain hopeful that this will result in an increase in capacity to the requested 4,250."

York City, who have now put tickets on general sale for their Vanarama National League North clash with Brackley, added: "If the SAG agree to the requested capacity increase, then further tickets will be made available as soon as formal confirmation has been received to that effect."

City have decided to sell "an initial allocation of tickets in lieu of a decision on the stadium capacity" in the run-up to the Brackley game.

The Minstermen will be hoping to secure a first competitive victory at their new ground against a Brackley side that have won their opening two matches.

Pre-season promotion favourites York have been beaten by Kidderminster Harriers and Gloucester City in their opening two league matches despite a successful pre-season, which yielded wins over Newcastle United and Middlesbrough.