Michael Woods set to miss York City's game against Blyth Spartans

The City midfielder felt an old Achilles injury during the midweek defeat at Boston United and looks like he will miss out on the National League North clash at the LNER Community Stadium on Saturday (3pm).

Woods finished the 90 minutes at Boston but found training on Wednesday and Thursday "uncomfortable".

City will be hoping he is a short-term addition to an unrelenting injury list, which contains long-term concerns Scott Barrow and Michael Duckworth.

It has been confirmed that Duckworth has suffered a torn hamstring, which will keep him out for four to six weeks.

Club captain Sean Newton continues to recover from a jarred knee, and has continued training after his late substitute at Boston, where centre-back partner Matty Brown got another 90 minutes.

Clayton Donaldson, substituted at half-time, turned his ankle on Tuesday night but has been able to train in the days following, while Jason Gilchrist is getting back to training.

"We're standing here today with 12 players and that in itself is difficult," Watson said. "A lot of them will be playing out of position.

"It isn't a normal season. If we were sitting here with five defeats under our belts and we'd been playing what we consider our strongest side, we'd have nowhere to go from there, we'd be scratching our heads.

“But we know what we’ve got coming back and we know what we’re capable of.

“We might get a little bit lucky in the loan market, which has proved difficult because teams are reluctant to let their fringe players go because of their cups.

“It’s a difficult time for lots of reasons but we’re just outside where we need to be.

“We all set out with the intention of winning the league but we’ve been hit with a lot of reasons, as well as bad performances along the way.”

Watson's preferred loanee to replace Barrow will be a senior player as he has two youngsters in Jonny Haase and Lewis Cunningham who can step in at left-back.

"I think it's a difficult time (for them to come in)," he said. "I'd rather do that than get another young lad in."

Where Watson can afford to chop and change is up front.

"It's not rocket science when it comes to strikers," he added. "If you're scoring and playing well, you're staying in the team.

"At the moment, if all the chances we're creating aren't being capitalised on, I will keep looking for the right combination.

"As yet, there are probably two of the strikers who haven't nailed that down."

The highest-profile absentees from the Blyth game are assistant manager Micky Cummins and centre-back Josh King, both of whom have been charged by the FA for breaching betting rules.

King, whose suspension expires on November 12, was considering an appeal but the club considered the ban a fair length of time.

“He’s a young lad and it was probably a lack of education, a bit of naivety on his behalf when you listen to what’s gone on,” Watson commented. “Where Josh has been caught foul, he’s not been brought up with the academy.

“Even National League North academies are fully aware and have the full education of that.

“I think he’s just been naive, and I think the length of time he’s been banned for backs that up - it’s not a lengthy ban, it’s more of a slap on the wrist and hopefully he’ll learn from it.”