Next Up: York City Away

A paltry return of one point from three home games in the last week has seen all optimism evaporate following the win at Southend, and Paul Tisdale will need to lift his side for the long trip up to North Yorkshire on Saturday. Tisdale tinkered on Tuesday night without success, and changes are to be expected once more as City look for a winning formula. Tom Nichols should replace Sam Parkin up front, with either John O’Flynn, Elliot Richards or Jimmy Keohane likely to partner the youngster in attack. Jordan Moore-Taylor replaced Danny Coles in defence and will hope to keep his place although Pat Baldwin was fit enough for the bench, while there may be recalls for Artur Krysiak and Matt Oakley.

York go into Saturday’s match unbeaten in four, although like City they have had a problem scoring goals at home in recent matches, in fact their last goal at Bootham Crescent was way back on January 4th in a 3-1 win over Dagenham & Redbridge. They haven’t had the same problems away from home (similar to City too), and were the toast of East Devon a couple of weeks ago in thumping that lot down the A38 4-0. The main goalscoring threat comes from three players – top scorer (13) Wes Fletcher, Ryan Jarvis, who has nine, and summer signing from Hereford Ryan Bowman, who has six. 18 year old Preston loanee Ben Davies has been almost ever-present at the back and has earned positive reviews.

Back at the end of August, when City knew how to win at home, the Grecians came from behind to earn a 2-1 win – Jarvis put York ahead early on, this was cancelled out almost immediately by Alan Gow, and the player who broke his leg on Tuesday while on loan at Bristol Rovers notched the winner in the second half. It was the same scoreline at Bootham Crescent last January, a fine Own Goal by Alex Rodman was cancelled out by Michael Potts before Jimmy Keohane netted the winner with his first goal for City. City have in fact lost just once in their last seven visits to York, and hold the overall head-to-head lead with 23 wins to York’s 17 (7 draws).

Match Officials: http://www.exeweb.com/2014/02/26/match-officials-york-city-away/

Guide to Bootham Crescent, travel and pubs: http://www.exeweb.com/2012/08/16/the-things-you-need-to-know-bootham-crescent/