Friday Feature Gray Reflects On Opening Month At York

Just over a month ago, Martin Gray made a big decision in his career, he left fellow Vanarama National League side Darlington and made the move to Bootham Crescent to join York City, writes Tom Feaheny.

"It has been an enjoyable start, we as a group have learnt lessons already but it is satisfying to see progress being made, from the fitness levels of the lads to keep going to some of the additions as well," Gray reflected.

"We have kept going until the end in matches with our levels of fitness and in our last game that showed, it is nice to see that progression, also that includes certain players who have not played too often in recent months, so we know they will get better.

"It was simple when I joined that I could see we had a nucleus of good hungry players, the aim was promotion when I joined and that is still the case.

"I also want to make Bootham Crescent a fortress, I want us to make these fantastic fans cheer and I hope we can continue doing that, because they turn up in a really good number and make noise and back us, we need to be able to reward them for that support.

“I took the job on knowing this is a club with a tremendous fan base, the new facilities we will have will all be Football League ready, that is the ultimate aim."

Gray has been busy recruiting players, with several being ones he knew already, he is pleased with the work done so far.

"It is so important to have that depth, we have four strikers I like them all, they are all very talented, it is a relentless league, you play every week and we must be ready for each match.

"Gary Martin recently joined us, he has played at a high level, he impressed on debut, we have him until the new year and if he can replicate those performances until then, he will be an important player for us, he had gone a little while without a game, but it didn't look like that was the case.

"Aidan Connolly is someone who didn't play too much before I came in, now he is showing why I am picking him, he just needs to get more minutes that will get him up to the speed throughout the match.

"We need that in every position where you have them options, just in case that will prove to be key as the winter period comes in now, where you have plenty of matches."

The Minstermen moved into the play-off places with a win against Curzon Aston last weekend as an impressive first-half display saw the side go 2-0 in front at the break, with goals from Jon Parkin and Danny Parslow the difference, despite a Joe Guest strike, York left with the win and moved up to 6th.

“We are in the play-off places and at this point of the season we take that as a big positive, we know what we need to work on and we are doing that now.

"The next few months are crucial for us, so many games are coming up and we now want to be remaining in the play-off places and pushing and seeing just what we can achieve.

"I look at the games so far and if I'm being honest, I don't think we deserved to lose the games we did, Tamworth was a real sucker punch to concede in the last minute and we fought back against Salford, so the points total could be a bit more, but it is performances that will lead to results we know that.

“That being said wins and momentum are crucial for us, if we can defeat Alfreton that puts us in a strong position, we have depth in this squad and know we can go further.