Dismissal mars York friendly game

Martin Foyle is preparing for his first full season in charge at York

York City lost 3-1 in their final pre-season friendly at Halifax Town and had midfielder Craig Nelthorpe sent off.

Former Harrogate Town players Richard Marshall and James Dean, along with Ryan Crossley, scored for the Shaymen, while Michael Rankine scored for York.

City manager Martin Foyle told BBC York: "It was a big disappointment but we've learnt more about the players.

"Craig Nelthorpe's led with his arm, it is a sending off and I'm not going to protect that because I can't."

Foyle was critical of the tactics of some of the Halifax players, which he feels led to Nelthorpe's dismissal.

We're going to get this straight out of the system. We need to be stronger

Martin Foyle

"One or two of their players were going round kicking them off the ball. There were one or two elbows off the ball and we took the bait.

"The most annoying thing is that the instigator who started it all stayed on the pitch.

"I did say to the referee before the game, if there were any problems we'd make a substitution straight away, so he's let me down as well.

"We didn't really compete to start with. There was some good stuff and we should have scored two or three more goals in the first half.

"Richard Brodie had two fantastic chances with headers really that, hopefully if they come next week, they will rifle into the back of the net."

Foyle was also unhappy about the poor defending that led to the first two Halifax goals, and felt they missed midfielder Andy Ferrell, who has a slight knee injury.

Nelthorpe was behind with his training due to illness, and Foyle is monitoring two other players who are slightly behind, defender Jimmy Sangare and striker Michael Gash.

"It's just unfortunate that Jimmy Sangare couldn't have a bit of match practice, he's done a lot of training but is aching a bit.

"Michael just needed 30 minutes. We've got another game behind closed doors on Monday night. He needs match practice and we'll see how he goes.

"We're going to get this straight out of the system. We need to be stronger," he added. "Collectively we were quite poor."