YORK City manager Neal Ardley admitted that the fixture list 'doesn't get any easier' with the Minstermen set to take on his former side Solihull Moors on Saturday, September 30. 

Solihull Moors currently find themselves on a 12 match unbeaten run under Ardley's successor Andy Whing, who the York boss was very complimentary of prior to the clash, along with former City midfielder Gus Mafuta who currently stars in the middle of the park for the Moors. 

Ardley confessed that it was a new experience for him to take on a team he previously managed so close to taking a new job, but assured that he was focusing on the strengths of his side, rather than the threat of Solihull.

“It doesn’t get any easier!" Ardley laughed. 

"But if you had said going into the Southend game, with Southend at home, Oldham away, Woking away and Barnet at home, that we were going to take six points from them four games, I think we would have all gone ‘okay, that’s a decent start’.

"We’ve got to look at the next three games and set something where we are chipping away, that’s what it is, it’s trying not to get into a rut in the next three month period going into Christmas.

"We’ve got to keep our form where we are chipping away and picking up points to slowly evolve as a team. If we can do that, then we can look upwards, as we need to be careful not to get into a rut.

“It’s weird, it’s a new experience for me.

"We felt like we did some good work in the Summer there, Kyle Morrison, Matty Warburton have done great.

"Gus Mafuta, the lads will know him from here, but that complimented what we felt we needed from the club.

“I’ve always liked Gus, I liked him when he’s been at Hartlepool and Boreham Wood and when we was at Solihull in the Summer we had technically gifted players, we wanted that bit of power and pace in midfield with a little bit of strength.

"We thought that Gus was the ideal player for that, so we went and signed him because we felt he complimented what we had.

"The feedback I’m getting is that he’s having a really good season.

"There were a few others as well that we signed and they’re having good seasons from the feedback that I have been getting.

"Whing has come in and added some more quality to it, they’ve got good players and I know that because I’ve worked with a lot of them and they are very underrated and very good.

"12 games unbeaten is an incredible feat, they’re very good defensively and I think their goals conceded is second in the league.

"They get back into their 5-4-1 shape very quickly, they’re hard to break down, protect the middle of the pitch and have good players that can score going forward.

"Every game is different, I don’t think it will be like the Barnet game because they’re a different team with different players, they’ll be a similar shape and we’ve got challenges to overcome.

“He’s done a great job, they’ve got really good staff there that I inherited when I came in and Andy has inherited as well.

"It’s fantastic facilities and good players, we felt that we had done a good transfer window in the Summer and brought five, maybe six in.

"They’ve been playing very well, and they’ve added to already good players.

"We got to the play-off final the season before last and was eight minutes away from getting promotion, there’s good players there and they’ve added good players.

"A good structure, good training ground, lots of good things in place.

“I’ve got to focus on my team, over the last few seasons with Notts County and Solihull we’ve put together a really strong team.

"That’s shown because we’ve been in the play-offs. It’s been easier to focus on my team and the way we do things, because if we’re at it then the opposition have got to contain us.

"I think here we’ve come into a team that needs their confidence upping and a bit of structure, it’s harder to go straight in and get the opposition team to worry about us because we’ve got a lot of things we need to be better at in our structure.

"I’ve only really had one week of training before we’ve gone Saturday to Tuesday, there’s a lot of things we need to improve on but we need to work a little bit harder to understand our roles against an opposition and a system, whilst trying to implement the way we want to play."