THERE were no last-gasp heroics here. Where Paul Brayson and Nathan Peat had handed York City the most unlikely of late victories at Northwich Victoria over the past two seasons, this time it was the Minstermen who were hanging on as referee Darren Handley’s final whistle blew.

The Marston’s Arena proved to be a trial of strength for Colin Walker’s men, and they came away from Cheshire with their nerves, and their unbeaten record, just about intact.

Daniel McBreen’s heavily deflected shot on 57 minutes gave the Minstermen a point and, at times, York pummelled the Vics’ goal – particularly during a rampant 15-minute first-half spell where they should have put the game out of sight.

But while they were impressive going forward, they were also alarmingly suspect at the back.

Overlapping play from full-backs Richie Sutton and Ryan Brown caused City all kinds of problems and stand-in skipper David McGurk’s back four fared no better when Northwich frequently opted to lump it forward to Darryn Stamp.

Walker had elected to leave fit-again goalkeeper Michael Ingham on the bench and he may have been regretting that decision when Josh Mimms and McGurk combined for some comical defending for Northwich’s opening goal just after the quarter-hour mark.

The Vics launched a hopeful punt forward, Mimms failed to give his skipper a shout and came charging off his line as McGurk back-headed the ball over the stranded ’keeper and into the net.

Mimms endured a difficult afternoon – indecisiveness bettered by one astonishing second-half save which kept the Vics at bay.

City missed the presence and aerial ability of Mark Greaves – sidelined with a tight Achilles – but they weren’t behind for long, the equaliser arriving after 26 minutes.

Mark Robinson’s diagonal header gave Simon Rusk the scent. The battling midfielder wore down Brown and turned him by the corner flag.

Rusk took a moment to compose himself and then picked out Richard Brodie ten yards out with a slide-rule pass. The City striker took a touch and then smashed it off the bar and into the net.

That was the cue for the York guns to start blazing.

First Ben Wilkinson shot straight at Scott Tynan after the way was opened up by Niall Henderson, before Craig Farrell missed a simple chance on the half-hour – flashing his shot wide of the left-hand post after Tynan had parried a strong Daniel McBreen effort.

Rusk and McBreen then tested Tynan with efforts before Brodie fired into the side-netting after trying to round one defender too many in the Northwich box.

But as the Minstermen continued to look the likelier, Northwich scored in the 42nd minute as Walker’s defence fell asleep.

Once again, it was route one.

A long punt up the park was flicked on by Stamp and fell to Johnny Allan, who lifted the ball over Mimms and into the net. It was a good finish, but no one picked up the Vics’ number ten, who dispatched his shot over a City ’keeper ten yards off his line.

Mimms fumbled another shot round the post as the second period got under way and new signing Simon Russell came into the fray after 55 minutes. He made an immediate impact.

City broke quickly from a corner and the former Kidderminster man was brave, crushing into a tackle and touching the ball on to give City a three-on-one break.

Farrell and Wilkinson kept things moving before McBreen collected the ball at the far post. He got a huge slice of luck, his shot cannoning off Matty Crowell and deflecting past the stranded Tynan’s outreached left hand and dropping into the net.

While City’s first equaliser had proved the catalyst for an all-out assault, this time it was Northwich who remained the stronger. Play had barely restarted when Mimms was called into action – superbly touching Allan’s drive onto the crossbar.

But he was left watching on 75 minutes when substitute Michael Byrne’s right-footed effort cannoned off the post and the top of the bar.

Russell could still have crowned an impressive cameo debut by handing City all three points. First, he smashed over the bar after Onome Sodje picked him out following good work at the by-line after 81 minutes. Then, just three minutes later, he repeated the trick after Sodje turned a defender and once more fed his new team-mate.

In between, Allan had missed a glorious chance, scooping wide from just inside the box when Lee Steele carved open City with a pass and Steele himself missed the chance to be the hero when striking a vicious shot into the set netting after Stamp had found him with a cushioned header.


Match facts

Northwich 2 (McGurk og 15 Allan 42), York City 2 (Brodie 26 Crowell og 57)

City: Josh Mimms 5, Ben Purkiss 5, Danny Parslow 6, David McGurk 7, Mark Robinson 8, Simon Rusk 8, Niall Henderson 6, Ben Wilkinson 6, Richard Brodie 6, Craig Farrell 6, Daniel McBreen 7.

Substitutions: Simon Russell (for Brodie, 54) 8, Darren Kelly (for Purkiss, 77) 6, Onome Sodje (for Wilkinson, 81) 6.

Subs not used: Ingham, Beadle.

Key: 10 – Faultless; 9 – Outstanding; 8 – Excellent; 7 – Good; 6 – Average; 5 – Below par; 4 – Poor; 3 – Dud; 2 – Hopeless; 1 – Retire

City’s star man: Simon Rusk – hard work created the first goal and was enterprising in the midfield.


Northwich: Scott Tynan, Richie Sutton (Matt Bailey, 68), Ryan Brown, Michael Welch, Mark Roberts, Matty Crowell, Jamie Mullan, (Lee Steele, 74), Joel Byrom (Michael Byrne, 56), Johnny Allan, Darryn Stamp, Chris Flynn.

Subs not used: Michael Jones, Danny Williams.


Shots on target: Northwich 8, City 8.

Shots off target: Northwich 7, City 6.

Corners: Northwich 6, City 4.

Fouls: Northwich 13, City 6.

Offsides: Northwich 7, City 4.

Yellow cards: Robinson 59.

Referee: Darren Handley (Wigan).

Rating: In control of the match throughout and met very little resistance to his decisions.

Attendance: 1,065.

Mistake of the match: The bumbled communication between McGurk and Mimms that saw the former score an annoying own goal

Move of the match: Wonderful interplay between Russell, Farrell and Wilkinson created City’s second equaliser.


City player watch: Niall Henderson

Shots on target: 0

Shots off target: 0

Passes to own players: 22

Passes to opposition: 9

Pass success rate: 71 per cent

Crosses to own player: 1

Crosses to opposition: 2

Dribbles, balls retained: 2

Dribbles, balls lost: 1

Dribble success rate: 66.7 per cent

Free-kicks won: 0

Free-kicks conceded: 0

Headers: 8

Tackles: 5

Clearances, blocks and interceptions: 5

Offsides: 0

Bookings: 0

Summary: A tidy, if unspectacular, display from City’s central midfielder. Henderson was essentially employed as a stopper – designed to disrupt Northwich’s attacking play in the middle of the park. He did this reasonably effectively and was, in general, neat with his passing.

He was generally in the right place at the right time, making a couple of crucial tackles in the first half.