YORK City manager Neal Ardley is set to keep Lenell John-Lewis as the club’s first-team captain, and has appointed Ryan Fallowfield as vice-captain.

Fallowfield wore the armband in York’s 2-2 draw with Boreham Wood last Saturday with John-Lewis suspended, but the City forward is set to be back available for tomorrow’s match against Southend United at the LNER Community Stadium.

Ardley also confirmed that Dan Batty will likely be back available after suffering a dead leg against Boreham Wood, but Middlesbrough loanee Jack Stott remains a doubt after an injury in training.

“I just wanted to make sure that everyone who thought it was going to be Callum Howe got it wrong!” Ardley laughed at Fallowfield taking the captaincy.

“Callum’s just walked into the club, Ryan’s been at the club before and I’ve played against Ryan’s teams before and he’s got the respect of the players.

“He’s a very good player, I look at Ryan at the moment as my main right-back, we’ve got injuries at the moment in that position and I think he’s a man and players respect him.

“He got the armband for that reason, I like to have centre-halves or defenders having the armband, or possibly midfielder.

“But having seen Lenny John-Lewis around the training ground, I realised why he was made the captain.

“He’s a leader, the lads respect him, he’s a great character, wants to run the place right and wants to educate people, every club wants someone like that around the place.

“For me, I’ve got no reason why I would want to change Lenny as the club captain, because everything he has shown me I would want from that role.

“If Lenny’s not starting, Ryan will be the captain if he starts. If both of them are unavailable, then I’ll have to have a think about the next one.

“The only one that was a concern was Batts, but he’s trained.

“We’re hoping he’ll be alright, he got a nasty knock.

“Jack Stott rolled his ankle in training yesterday so he is a doubt, but other than that I think we’re okay.

“People like Callum Harriott and Alex Woodyard are on their recovery process, so it’s when I think they have got enough in their leg to start playing a role in the squad, that could happen very soon and will be a welcome addition.”

Ardley also confirmed that Paddy McLaughlin would be focusing on his role as a player rather than as a sports scientist, with the club set to add to Ardley’s backroom staff.

“We’ve got work haven’t we! They will impact (McLaughlin) because he will become a player again.

“For Paddy he doesn’t want to be dual-rolled, he doesn’t want to be on my staff group where we are having staff meetings every morning at 8:15 and loads of conversations going.

“He’s a player, so to be part of the staff conversation is not right, he needs to focus on doing the best he can on the pitch.

“We need to get people in full-time, because if we get the right GPS equipment and data then they can run that data and progress the fitness levels of those players. It needs to be a big approach to get everything right.

“Data analysis, we want to enhance our recruitment, I am keen to put a model together where any data is collected into players we can put into an algorithm.

“The chances are you will make more good signings than bad, even Alex Ferguson made a couple of bad signings!”