STEVE WATSON is a happy manager after watching his York City side dominate Blyth Spartans - and wants to see a string of performances like it this season.

York thoroughly deserved their 4-0 win at the LNER Community Stadium over Blyth, who had no response to City's intensity, desire and ball-play, particular in a rapid opening 30 minutes.

Paddy McLaughlin and Mackenzie Heaney earned goalscoring honours for a star midfield, with Matty Brown - who partnered the excellent Akil Wright at centre-back - and striker Kurt Willoughby getting the other two.

Once McLaughlin's strike hit the back of the net in the third minute, it looked a long way back for the woeful Blyth - and City drove the point home to rise to seventh in National League North.

"We made a great start, really front-foot and energetic," said Watson.

"We came off a disappointing night on Tuesday and all you can ask for is a positive response.

"I think we got that for 90 minutes today.

"That was the performance we've been trying to put together.

"I think the midfield three, in particular, the energy they showed didn't give them any time to settle at all.

"It was a pleasing performance because we felt battered and bruised on Tuesday and it's been a tough week.

"I said to the lads, 'You look like you enjoyed it', and that's the main thing. It's been a long time coming.

"We won, kept a clean sheet, scored four goals and had opportunities to make it a bigger score.

"Pete had a couple of saves to make, which you're going to get in 90 minutes of football, but both came from bits of looseness from us, so we weren't really carved open either.

"All together it was exactly what we needed.

"But it can't be an isolated game. We need to produce a string of those.

"And it doesn't matter who you play against - if you play with that intensity, with the quality we've got, we'll win a lot more games than we lose."