York 1 City 0

Donovan Ricketts seized the chance to show he was back to his shot-stopping best.

And that left Stuart McCall a concerned man.

The City boss was delighted to see the big fella on form again after one or two little pre-season wobbles.

But it was the fact that Ricketts was so busy that bothered McCall at the KitKat Crescent.

So much for the brand's advertising slogan about "Having a break..."

Ricketts pulled off several big saves as City turned in an "After the Lord Mayor's show" display compared with the bite and zeal of their Burnley efforts.

"Donovan had too much to do," admitted McCall. "I don't want to see him as busy as that in the games we're going to play.

"But I know shot-stopping is his strength and he did ever so well in that regard. He's been excellent like that all week in the small-sided games we've played in training."

Ricketts bailed out his defence time and again, in particular a shaky Mark Bower, as York became City's second Blue Square Premier opponents to claim friendly honours.

With energetic skipper Emmanuel Panther everywhere on the pitch, it was no surprise when they broke the deadlock after 32 minutes.

Ricketts had just superbly kept out Paul Brayson's stinger but, despite another fine reaction save from Craig Farrell when the corner came in, the rebound rolled to Chris Beardsley for a simple tap-in.

McCall said: "In the first half we weren't at it all over the park. You've got to give credit to York but we didn't do enough.

"We warned the players before the game to maintain their standards and mentally this game was always going to be as hard as any.

"You've just played against Burnley in a big stadium at home, up against names that you know. Not taking anything away from York but this was role reversal and we were disappointing."

Joe Colbeck should have done better after cutting inside on to his left foot and Barry Conlon, who needs that elusive first goal, saw one chalked off for offside after a sweeping move.

Nathan Joynes, now safely secured as the third Barnsley loanee, showed some neat touches alongside Conlon, though he was a little reluctant to chance his arm with a shot.

The arrival of Omar Daley at half-time gave City a much-needed lift and certainly picked up the 400 away fans behind York's goal.

Daley carried on where he left off against Burnley and soon forced under-employed home keeper Tom Evans into a decent save.

Once again prowling the left flank, which is quickly becoming his own, the Jamaican supplied an inviting cross which Conlon should have made more of. And after spiralling an ambitious volley over the open terrace, Daley drilled another superb centre across the six-yard box that was begging to be touched in.

His Reggae Boy compatriot was still too occupied at the other end for McCall's liking with Ricketts producing a fine stop from Beardsley after a missed header from Bower, who had a very uncomfortable afternoon at the club where he cut his first-team teeth.

The centre half thought he had made amends with an equaliser in stoppage time but his crashing header from Leon Osborne's cross was ruled out for a push in the back of David McGurk.

Trialist Kyle Naughton was given nearly a full game, switching wings when Daley came on, but he did not show enough to convince McCall he was worth a punt and will be going back to Sheffield United.

Kyle Nix, though, has a month's contract to cement his own position and again looked positive when he appeared late on.

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