JOHN ASKEY has praised his York City players for their commitment against Darlington in the midst of a gruelling fixture schedule.

The Minstermen have not had a spare midweek since the start of February - and yet continue to get the results to drive them towards the National League North play-off spots.

And on Tuesday night, City recorded their sixth league win from eight games when a second-half salvo gave them a 3-1 win over Darlington at the LNER Community Stadium.

Kurt Willoughby opened the scoring in the 69th minute with a cross which went all the way through to the net two minutes before Mitch Hancox netted from a position which had Darlington appealing for offside.

Clayton Donaldson added a penalty after being fouled by David Wheater before Cameron Thompson skipped through and pulled one back for the Quakers at the death in an entertaining game.

"I don't think it was luck," commented manager Askey on Willoughby's opener. "Kurt does that, doesn't he? He cuts in and he puts it in that area where it could go in.

"I don't think he really looks to cross it - I think Kurt looks to try and score, which obviously he did.

"That set us off, then there was Mitch's goal, which looked about 300 yards offside.

"You've got to take your chances.

"It was a blatant penalty against Clayton.

"We were disappointed to concede a goal at the end. It was a little bit of sloppy play.

"But after the last few weeks we've had, to keep going like that, it's full credit to the players."

Willoughby was making his first start since the mid-February win over AFC Telford United. He was one of two players changed from the draw at Hereford at the weekend, with Hancox coming back into the side.

Askey has a good set of performers to choose from as it stands - but picking from a winning side is not too much of a headache.

He said: "Players can't say a great deal when you're winning. When you're losing week in, week out, it can be a little bit hard work and you've got people knocking on your day every minute of every day.

"We've got a group of players who are all pulling together and they know there's a reason why they're not playing or that the reason they're not playing is that we're winning."