YORK City will be hoping hitman Jon Parkin will be well enough to face Alfreton Town on Saturday.

Veteran striker Parkin, who scored in the National North League win over Curzon Ashton last weekend, was due to take joint charge of the reserves’ midweek match against their Mansfield Town counterparts alongside senior keeper Jon Worsnop, but he missed the game due to illness.

Academy manager Mark Spencer instead joined Worsnop on the touchline at a wet Bootham Crescent, with City losing 5-0.

York fielded trialist Tyler Walton, who was released by the Minstermen at the end of last season, and keeper Luke Simpson, whose injury concern had kept him out of last week’s reserves game.

There were only three senior players in the City side, while the Stags packed their line-up with first-team players who needed competitive game time.

Mansfield opened the scoring after only 59 seconds, Hayden White collecting a diagonal ball and firing past Simpson, and doubled their lead three minutes before the break through Jimmy Spencer, his header from White's cross being directed back across goal and beyond Simpson's reach.

York otherwise held their own for the majority of the half, and young midfielder Aaron Haswell went close, but his shot was blocked on the line by former City loanee keeper Bobby Olejnik.

Walton almost scored at the start of the second half, when his 25-yard effort fizzed just wide of the right-hand upright, while, at the other end, teenage full-back Zak Lawrence was called on to head a Omari Sterling-James shot off the line.

City began to come under increased pressure, and conceded again in the 73rd minute through Spencer’s second.

From a home corner, Olejnik released Callum Butcher down the wing, who played a square ball for Spencer to finish from eight yards.

Former Millwall man Butcher then added two of his own in the space of six minutes, first collecting a loose back-pass from trialist Walton and rounding Simpson, then with a side-footed shot from Alfie Potter’s assist which beat the defenders on the line.