YORK City’s defensive effort won praise from manager Martin Foyle after a fourth clean sheet in five games helped them to a 1-0 victory at Rushden and Diamonds.
The victory at Nene Park last night kept the Minstermen in third place in the Blue Square Premier, and Foyle said: “We were sound defensively and looked accomplished as a group of players back there.”
A key figure in City’s recent run of form is on-loan Mansfield centre-back Luke Graham, and Foyle is keen to extend his stay at Bootham Crescent.
He said: “Luke Graham is due to go back to Mansfield after the Wrexham game (on Saturday), but I want to see if there’s any chance of keeping him.
“I am going to try because the initial understanding was it was for a month’s cover.
“We thought Djoumin Sangare would be back, but it’s taken longer than we thought and Luke has done absolutely fantastic for me.”
A 72nd-minute Richard Brodie header won the game for City and Foyle said: “It wasn’t a classic, but we came here hoping to get three points, so we’ll go home happy.
“I thought it was a tired display from both sides and the weekend games probably took a lot out of the players, with three or four of our lads looking tired.
“Our front two were not on fire, but you can’t expect them to do it week in, week out.”
Meanwhile, on-loan City winger Craig Nelthorpe scored an 85th minute winner for Barrow at Altrincham last night.
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