YORK CITY surpassed Chelmsford City in the fourth round of the Isuzu FA Trophy, thanks to a penalty shootout victory after the score originally ended 1-1.

Here are five things we learnt from the FA Trophy clash.

1. York City can take penalties

It’s one of the simplest yet most nerve-wrecking challenges in the game, but the result of a penalty kick can either be jubilation or pure anguish for a footballer. 

Nevertheless, it was only happiness from a City perspective, who boasted a 100 percent record of tucking away their spot-kicks when scoring five out of five. 

This is despite the fact that manager David Webb admitted that they had not been practising in training; which just shows the quality of this City side from the spot.

2. Dyson dictating

After having to manage for the two Gateshead fixtures in the festive period and the Maidstone United victory 11 days ago, Webb confirmed that midfield trooper Olly Dyson would be back involved against Chelmsford.

Despite suffering from the flu, Dyson showed no signals of deterioration and dictated the midfield, often being the link between defence to attack and consistently trying to spread the ball onto the wings for Nathan Thomas and Alex Hurst.

And to top it all off, the midfielder celebrated his return with a calm headed finish past Eddie Beach in the first-half, and comfortably fired home the winning spot-kick for City.

3. Captain Ross

The performance of York goalkeeper Ethan Ross was a brilliant one, making a pivotal stop in the dying minutes to deny Liam Trotter from snatching the win and being rather unfortunate to concede to what was a spectacular (lucky) finish from Eduino Vaz in the 38th minute. 

But despite the performance of the Stockport County loanee, Ross was mostly-recognised for his attitude as captain. 

With Lenell John-Lewis injured for Saturday’s FA Trophy triumph with a grade two groin injury, fans were pleased to see Ross be elected as the man chosen to lead the club into the match, and he proved to be an admirable choice by commanding the back-line and often providing himself as an option when pressure on the defenders or midfield began to get overwhelming. 

Along with that, his happiness at being chosen as captain was evident after the game, with the goalkeeper saying: “It’s a real honour, it is a real, real honour for me. To be able to lead this club out with so much history, it’s a really proud day for me and my family.”

4. Depths on the wings

It’s no secret that Webb has adopted a rather large squad which has had it’s fair share of injuries this season, but with recent additions such as Shaq Forde from Watford and Ollie Tanner from Cardiff City on a season-long loan, it’s good to see such strong squad depth.

To have a player of Tanner’s quality to come off-of-the bench in the 88th minute was a little bit of a disappointment, especially as the game was heavily up for grabs, but it just demonstrates the calibre of player Webb has available to him to bring on.

With natural wingers such as Nathan Thomas, Alex Hurst, Tanner and the injured Maz Kouhyar (abductor) all acting as options, Webb also has Mitch Hancox, Forde and Luke James when he returns from his injury (calf).

It’s a positive for City fans to see a lot of talent who can hopefully can grow as players and make the competition for players even more difficult.

5. Room for improvement

This might seem like an article that is full of praise for City, but sadly it’s not.

York were far from their best against a team in the division below and in all honestly Chelmsford were unfortunate to leave the LNER Community Stadium as not members of the FA Trophy. 

The urgency was lacking at times in spreading the ball about, which wasn’t helped by the conditions, and some players appeared to be getting frustrated very easily, such as Manny Duku.

There is certainly room for improvement for Webb’s side, but the manager has recognised this and knows the test of Southend United in the next round will be much more difficult to deal with.