NEAL ARDLEY praised the performance of his York City squad after a tightly-contested 1-1 draw with Oldham Athletic.

Despite going into the match as clear underdogs, Ardley’s side were able to earn an important point against play-off bound Oldham as York continue to fight against a potential relegation from the Vanarama National League, with City now just one point clear of the drop zone.

Mike Fondop had put the Latics ahead when latching onto an error from City shot-stopper George Sykes-Kenworthy, before Will Davies drew the Minstermen level just nine minutes later from a corner.

Ardley was pleased with the aspects of York’s performance, and explained how he believed that his side were ‘peaking’ after a narrow point at the LNER Community Stadium.

“I wanted the three (points),” Ardley admitted.

“Today I was desperate to get three points even though we knew it was a tough game, but I am really pleased with the performance.

“I am pleased with the effort, I am pleased with the camaraderie and I am pleased with the result.

“They came and showed a bit of respect, they’re a real big and strong team which was my only concern.

“We had diddy men and pace but we knew that the set-pieces might be a problem, but we wanted to try and attack the game.

“We started in a 4-3-3 and at times I thought it worked really well in the first-half, and I was just thinking when they scored that now was the time to put a second forward on to have a proper crack it.

“It was a bit of a one-off mistake, but we have to accept that and move on to bounce back like we did the other day.

“We might ask for a bit more quality at times and this and that, but today in the final third they gave everything.

“They’re a team of men, they know their jobs, their front two were a proper handful and we knew that.

“I thought that in the first-half we managed it well and in the second-half we got a little bit straggly at times, but by enlarge we defended really, really well.

“If we didn’t have the one slip up then it might’ve been just the one goal that we needed, which is why I was thinking of bringing the second striker on for.”

Ardley went on to show his support for Sykes-Kenworthy after a mistake which led to Oldham’s opener, whilst also crediting the City fans in a captivating atmosphere at the LNER Community Stadium.

“He’s a great lad and there’s no blame culture, we win as a team and we lose as a team.

“Everybody is working really, really hard and I thought that the atmosphere, the fans, it was brilliant today.

“We’ve got too many draws and we know that, there are wins that we want to pick up, I’ve just said to the lads in there that I feel like we are peaking.

“In our fitness, in our work ethic, I think that if we can keep it going and have that little bit of extra quality, if one or two players can hit the ground running with their finishing then we could be fine.”