YORK City boss Colin Walker will not rush into signing a replacement for Martyn Woolford after missing out on former Carlisle United winger Brendan McGill.

Walker had lined up McGill, no relation to City managing director Jason, before Woolford’s departure for Scunthorpe last week but the 27-year-old Irishman has returned to his homeland to join Bohemians instead after spending the last two seasons with Gretna.

McGill was a team-mate of City trio Ben Wilkinson, Niall Henderson and Steven Hogg at the Scottish border club and played alongside Darren Kelly at Carlisle having also started out at Sunderland with Michael Ingham.

But Walker’s attentions have already switched elsewhere with his team of scouts out in force.

Ahead of tonight’s televised home clash with Wrexham, the City boss said: “I thought I’d got Brendan McGill before Martyn left but what I won’t do now is panic. I’ve still got 21 good players in the squad and we had seven or eight people out and about looking at players at different levels – in our league and lower leagues – on Tuesday night.”

Midfielder Hogg has recovered from shingles but will still be sidelined for tonight’s game because of a thigh strain.

Ingham will also miss out on a chance to face his former club but Walker expects his thigh problem to clear up before the end of the month.

The 28-year-old goalkeeper failed to break into the Hereford first team last season having damaged his finger shortly after joining the Bulls and is cursing his luck even though Walker previously indicated that on-loan Birmingham ’keeper Artur Krysiak had only been signed as a stop-gap.

Walker added: “Michael is disappointed and looking for a reason as to why it’s happened. The team has won and everyone’s up and running so he’s a bit frustrated but he’s been there before and is a great professional who I’m sure will be ready in the next seven to ten days.”

After an impressive debut in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Crawley, 18-year-old Krysiak will play his first home game in front of the Setanta cameras tonight and the City boss said: “I’m hoping he will cope the same as he did on Saturday when I thought he was excellent. He has mixed in well and has a good head on his shoulders for a young lad.”

Walker could opt again for the flexible 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation that he employed at Crawley with forwards Craig Farrell and Richard Brodie flanking lone central striker Daniel McBreen.

It would mean a second outing on the left wing for Brodie but Walker added: “If you asked Richard to play in goal he would, although he might need his glasses. He just loves being part of the team.

“The work he and Faz did at Crawley made the system into a 4-3-3 very quickly. They got in little pockets where Crawley did not know who was picking them up.

“But we’ve spent a lot of time this week working on how we will go forward better than we did on Saturday and hopefully we will be the team in the ascendancy tonight.”

Despite Wrexham’s 5-0 opening day mauling of pre-season title favourites Stevenage, Walker received reports that the game was a closer affair than the scoreline suggested and the City boss feels his team are capable of joining Barrow, Weymouth, Rushden and Cambridge as the only five sides with maximum points from their first two fixtures.

He said: “You have to respect Wrexham for winning 5-0 and Brian Little is a great manager who’s worked at all levels of the game and got out of this division before. But, from what I’ve heard, Stevenage had a lot of the game early on.

“I’ve set myself a little target from the first five games and, at the moment, we are well on the way to achieving it.”

City (probable): Krysiak, Purkiss, McGurk, Parslow, Robinson, Greaves, Rusk, Wilkinson, Farrell, McBreen, Brodie.

Subs: Mimms, McWilliams, Kelly, Henderson, Sodje.

Wrexham (probable): Ward, Spender, Kempson, N Brown, Tremarco, S Brown, Kearney, Smith, Aiston, Louis, Whalley.

Subs: A Williams, M Williams, Baynes, Evans, Spann.

Referee: Jock Waugh (Sheffield).

Kick-off: 7.45pm.