Penalties cost York City in "one of those nights" at Boston United

The Minstermen lost 2-1 at the Jakemans Community Stadium on Tuesday evening, when their Lincolnshire hosts benefitted from two penalties.

But apart from a lacklustre start, City were far from outclassed on the night.

Indeed, a draw would have been a fairer reflection of the entertaining National League North encounter, which gave Watson some positive signs to work with.

"I thought the performance was decent at times," he said. "I thought we looked like the only team that was trying to be ambitious with the ball.

"We coped with the first half really well considering the wind and the directness they played with.

"We had two or three chances to break first half and nothing really came of it but Mackenzie put in a good ball really early and Mark Beck got his head to it. Their defender was in the way and it bounced over, and that was kind of the recipe for the whole night.

"We missed two or three chances you'd expect us to do better with. Pete had very little to do from open play.

"It's just one of those nights.

"The performance against Gloucester and the second half against Brackley were poor but I come off tonight really frustrated because we didn't play badly.

"I thought we were the better side, but you give away two penalties and you're gifting two goals to the opposition and you're always going to struggle to win games.

"The little details tonight - some of the ball retention in the second half, when things really needed to stick, was a little bit slack. There are two or three players who need to be a little bit more reliable on a regular basis.

"I thought Sam did well considering the last time he played right-back was a tough game for him. I thought he was composed on the ball and used it really well.

"Defensively, I didn't think there was any danger, but you're giving two penalties away and that's going to kill you."

Watson estimates both Scott Barrow and Michael Duckworth will be "at least another month" away from returning.