YORK City manager Martin Foyle refused to make goalkeeper Michael Ingham a scapegoat for Saturday’s disappointing 1-1 home draw with ten-man Grays Athletic.

Ingham, who was presented with the Clubman of the Year award before the match, made a stoppage-time mistake to gift bottom-of-the-table Grays a point at Bootham Cresecent, cancelling out Richard Brodie’s 51st-minute strike for the Minstermen.

Relegated Grays had earlier seen goalkeeper Glyn Garner sent off for denying Brodie a goalscoring opportunity with the 36-goal striker then having his subsequent penalty saved by Preston Edwards.

Defending his ’keeper, Foyle said: “Inghy could have done better but it’s probably his first mistake for a while and he’s been fantastic for me so I can have no complaints about him. I would rather he made half an error now than in the play-offs.

“We also didn’t react to the second ball and, even though it was a good finish by their lad on the volley, we never covered as you should behind your ’keeper when he comes for a cross.”

Foyle is also keen to move on from Saturday’s poor display and focus on ending the regulation season at champions Stevenage before a two-legged, play-off semi-final against either Luton or Oxford on April 29 and May 3.

The City boss has previously made it clear that he would prefer to finish fourth rather than the fifth place his team now occupy after Rushden beat Wrexham at the weekend.

City now know they will play the first leg at home, although both Luton and Oxford could still secure the runners-up spot that would mean a meeting with the fifth-place side.

With Luton having drawn 0-0 against Altrincham on Saturday, a victory for Oxford at home to Wrexham on Tuesday night would move them to within a point of the Hatters going into next weekend’s final round of Blue Square Premier fixtures.

Oxford then travel to relegation-threatened Eastbourne on the final day while Luton visit Rushden.

Foyle added: “I will push this match (against Grays) firmly aside, because I want the players coming in this week looking forward to Stevenage on Saturday and some fantastic games ahead of us. There was a bit of negativity at the match and I’m not happy with that.

“Yes, it was a disappointing game, especially with them going down to ten men, but we are in the play-offs and have had a fantastic season. We are well above where we wanted to be and, whether we play Oxford or Luton, they are both fantastic sides who we will give us a hard game and vice versa.

“We need to get something at Stevenage now and see what happens with Rushden v Luton but it’s hard to manufacture who you will get in the play-offs and I don’t care who we play. I’m just absolutely delighted that we are in them.”

Foyle did admit, however, that he was frustrated with many aspects of his side’s performance on Saturday.

The City chief fielded the same starting line-up as he did during the 5-0 and 3-0 victories over AFC Wimbledon and Barrow in the club’s previous two home outings but warned those 11 players that their play-off places are not guaranteed.

He said: “I couldn’t see Grays scoring until the late goal but we had enough chances to win two or three games. We were also off the pace, a bit casual and sloppy in our simple passing.

“Our movement was poor too, so there are still a lot of things to work on. People might think that’s the side going into the play-offs but there were two or three players looking very tired out there.”