YORK City manager John Askey expects a “physical battle” against upcoming opponents Brackley Town.

York will travel to Brackley on Saturday (3pm) for their Vanarama National League North play-off semi-final, having advanced after beating Chorley 2-1 on Wednesday.

Town have not played since the final day of the season, automatically qualifying for the semi-finals by finishing in second place.

Talking to BBC Radio York, Askey admitted, “It’ll be a tough game, a physical one.

“They’re a physical team who like to get the ball forward quickly, rely a lot on set pieces and long throws.

“It’ll be a physical battle and we have to stand up to it, trying to play our own game.”

Finishing three places below Brackley in the division, City were unable to get the better of the Saints in the regular season, losing both match-ups.

Askey though, feels there is scarcely much difference between any of the sides in the division, regardless of their final position in the table.

“I don’t think there’s any real gap between any of the teams in the league,” he said.

“From top to bottom, there’s not been a great deal of difference.

“We’re on a good run of form, Brackley not so much, we’ve got to go there confident.”

The Minstermen will travel to St James Park with nearly a full team to select from.

The option of depth will be particularly beneficial given how little rest York have had since their match against Chorley.

“We’ve done well, we’ve come through the last lot of games and not really picked up many injuries so that’ll be the same for Brackley,” Askey noted.

“We’ll go there with almost everybody fit. Obviously the only one (out) is Michael Duckworth, but everyone else should be okay.

“We’ll be doing very little (in training). It’s a matter of virtually walking through training, preparing ourselves for what we think Brackley will do.

“Rest is the most important thing and then we go again.”