OLLIE TANNER labelled his York City loan spell last season as a ‘shambles’ after finding form in the Sky Bet Championship with Cardiff City.

Tanner became former York manager David Webb’s second signing in early January after struggling for game time in the Championship with Cardiff, arriving into North Yorkshire after an impressive stint with Lewes and a trial period at Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur.

However, Tanner’s loan tenure with the Minstermen was not one the winger looks fondly upon, after making just six appearances and failing to register a single goal whilst with York.

Tanner described his experience with the club as ‘toxic’ after struggling with criticism from supporters, and admitted it was a dark spell mentally for the 21-year-old.

“Lovely place to live, not so nice to play football there," Tanner told the Central Club Podcast.

“Last Summer I signed for Cardiff, I did the first six months in Cardiff and then in January I went on loan to York.

“I come into Cardiff and had a good six months, and it was always the plan, regardless of how well I did, to send me out on loan.

“To whatever level I was ready for, and at the time I wasn’t playing.

“Mark Hudson was manager at the time, and he told me ‘I think you need to go out on loan’.

“I agreed, I wasn’t playing, so I think this was in the November or December so for a couple of months I had my mind on going out on loan because I knew that I needed to go.

“I didn’t want to go, I wanted to stay and play at Cardiff, but at the time I wasn’t ready to.

“To be honest I wanted to go somewhere in the (Football) League, but I hadn’t had a lot of games so there wasn’t a lot of knowledge about me.

“It was harder for a League One or League Two club to say ‘go on, we want him’, so I had to go to a level where I was known and where I thought I could have played.

“At the time the manager here (at Cardiff City) knew the manager at York, he said to go there and play football.

“I was a bit reluctant to do it at the time. I needed games, I needed to go and play and I needed six months where I just played every week.

“That was the plan going there, but I went there and within a month the manager got sacked and it was a shambles.

“I don’t want to speak badly on York or anyone there because I had some good experiences and I learned a lot, but it was probably one of the darkest places I have been mentally.

“I wasn’t good there but I was playing with no confidence, and one of the boys said that I needed to keep my head here and scrape it back on, but the fans didn’t like me.

“I think they thought that I was going to come in and take it by storm, but I didn’t have a great start so then it set me up and the fans turned on me.

“Every time I played they would be booing me, it was hard but I don’t want to talk bad on them because they are in a bad position.

“They didn’t like the owner and were trying to get the owner out, they were in the relegation zone and not playing well, so you think a lad has gone on loan there from Cardiff and is not playing well, they weren’t having it.

“They’d boo their own players and they were booing me, it was a toxic place and it was hard to be (there). Luckily I came through that.”

Tanner is now finding regular football in the Championship with Cardiff, making a name for himself in the derby match with Swansea City, after returning to the Bluebirds with fire in his belly.

“Coming back from that loan move and that off-season, so this season, coming back off of the loan move I just had this fire in my belly to come back and be a different sort of animal.

“I came back into pre-season and I was the fittest I’ve ever been, I was in the best shape.

“That loan spell was tough mentally and being on my own up there, not having much contact with family."