JOHN ASKEY is hoping that the FA Trophy can play a part in galvanising his York City players and, in turn, the supporters.

Last Saturday, the interim boss oversaw his first City game since taking the reins from Steve Watson, and was not pleased with what he saw in the 2-1 defeat to Kettering Town.

On Saturday (3pm), Askey will be targeting the first win of his tenure when City welcome Blyth Spartans to the LNER Community Stadium in the second round proper of the Trophy.

Askey says he wants to see his new charges show "the confidence to get on the ball and express themselves" - and with the FA Trophy presenting both less pressure than National League North, and an opportunity to get on a uniting run, tomorrow could be the ideal opportunity to respond to last week's loss.

"It's important to us but it hasn't got the importance of a league game," he said.

"And it's an opportunity. You only have to win a few games and you can find yourself in the quarter-finals or semi-finals and, with the luck of the draw, you can soon find yourself at Wembley.

"It's the biggest cup competition there is a possibility of winning.

"If you can have a good run, it does get the town behind you, and we need something where the town gets behind us. We need something to get the club going again, and it could be a cup competition - but hopefully it's the league that gets us going.

"We need to give the supporters something to shout about.

It shouldn't be a chore to go out and play football," he continued. "It should be enjoyable, and if you enjoy what you do, then the supporters will start to enjoy it.

"But first and foremost, you've got to work to get the ball back when you've lost it.

"They get plenty of encouragement from me and hopefully that enables the supporters to get behind them.

"If they're not playing well, it's very difficult for the supporters to get behind you.

"But if they see people working hard and expressing themselves, then I know the York support will get behind them."

He added: "When you have a performance like (Kettering), you have to react and hopefully that's the kick we all need.

"It wasn't good enough, but I don't think you'll come across teams like Kettering too often. Sometimes that muddies the waters a little bit because it's difficult to play against teams like that.

"Saying that, we didn't play and we need to get the ball down and play far better football.

"That's gone, and we have to move on to this Saturday. That's been the message all week.

"They've trained really well. There are still good spirits among the players and we're looking for that reaction now.

"Every game's different. I saw the Leamington game where they didn't play; Curzon sat off them and allowed them to play, and we should have won the game; Saturday, because the team played the way they played, we weren't able to cope, physically as much as anything. That's something I've tried to address.

"We'll see on Saturday.

"I keep saying to them, 'There's nothing to fear in the league. It's about us'. If they work hard, they've a great chance of playing well, and if they play well, they'll enjoy it.

"It's as simple as that sometimes."

A change in attitude will probably not be the only difference from last week. The squad left the field unscathed, Askey reports, and the boss will likely do "something different" team-wise after Saturday's performance.

"There were some performances out there that I felt were unacceptable and, if that's the case, then you have to make changes," he said.

"At the end of the day, it's up to the players on the pitch to show me what they can do.

"If they're not doing it in this league, then I don't know where they expect to go."

Left-back Mitch Hancox is available for selection. The loanee was unable to play in the FA Cup against Buxton earlier this month.