Saturday 18 July 2009
Pre-Season Friendly
York City 0
Bradford City 2 (Williams 15, M Boulding 22)
Kick Off: 3.00pm
at Kit Kat Crescent

Attendance: 1225 (visitors 429)

Stuart McCall left KitKat Crescent on City's last pre-season visit with more questions than answers.

Only the agility of Donovan Ricketts that day prevented them from being completely over-run. It was not the best way to head into his first term in charge.

Two years on, McCall cut a far more contented figure as the current City line-up eased to their third friendly win in a week.

Of course, there are still plenty of boxes to be ticked. The 19 players given a run-out in the new black away strip included seven trialists.

Jordan Hadfield and Grant Smith weren't there - though they are still at the club - but City unveiled two more new faces, defender Jack Pelter from New Zealand and Estonian midfielder Yevgeni Novikov.

His arrival, complete with head band, gave City a more exotic look, though apart from a few simple touches, his only stand-out involvement was a theatrical fall and scream following an ankle tap.

More significantly, for the manager and the 429 travelling fans, was the performance of the guy alongside him in City's engine room.

Andy Holdsworth wore the No 4 shirt, the poison chalice since a certain fella gave it up, but certainly looked the part with the way he got on the ball and bossed the play. He also sounded the part, constantly dishing out advice to those around him.

If he was already on the books, the former Huddersfield favourite would be odds-on for the vacancy as captain.

Holdsworth has indicated he would be interested if the right deal can be struck. The next few days will be crucial.

McCall's trialist search has already unearthed one unexpected gem in Steve Williams.

And the raw centre half celebrated his newly-inked contract with a thumping header from Holdsworth's corner to open the scoring after 15 minutes.

No prizes for guessing who notched City's second midway through the half. Luke O'Brien again claimed the assist, as he had done against Burnley, with his early ball into the near post expertly whipped home by the predatory Michael Boulding.

The striker has hit peak form from the start, scoring every game, and once again posed a threat whenever he got a sniff of goal.

City could have been well out of sight by half-time. Chris Brandon had two chances, the busy Gareth Evans wasted a five-man counter when he shot instead of looking up, and Joe Colbeck tested keeper Josh Mimms with a screamer.

McCall shuffled things after half-time though. O'Brien and Zesh Rehman both stayed the full course of the game. So did Alan Mannus in goal to claim his clean sheet, although the Northern Irishman did not always convince despite a relatively quiet afternoon.

York had a brief go in the second half with Michael Rankine flashing a couple of headers over. Simon Russell prevented the only on-target threat but Mannus tipped over.

McCall said: "I had to leave a few out to have a look at the other lads. It's hard to judge anyone on just 45 minutes and that goes with supporters as well.

"They'll all be in today but we've only got a certain amount of places. We've had two weeks of training and the staff have seen people day in, day out so we'll make a decision on that.

"Just like players, fans and journalists, you just want to fast forward three weeks until the season starts but this needs to be done.

"It's nice to read in the paper that you've won but basically pre-season is all about building up a base level of fitness. Having said that, it's good to see the likes of Michael Boulding getting three in three because the confidence level will be really high."

YORK CITY	BRADFORD CITY
1 Josh Mimms	1 Alan Mannus
2 Ben Purkiss	2 Simon Ramsden
3 James Meredith	3 Luke O'Brien
4 Levi Mackin	4 Andy Holdsworth
5 Djoumin Sangare	5 Zesh Rehman
6 Daniel Parslow	6 Steve Williams
7 Adam Smith	7 Joe Colbeck
8 Andy Ferrell	8 Jevgeni Novikov
9 Richard Brodie	9 Gareth Evans
10 Richard Pacquette	10 Michael Boulding
11 Craig Nelthorpe	11 Chris Brandon
Substitutes:	Substitutes:
13 Michael Ingham for 1 (46)	12 Jonathan Bateson for 6 (63)
14 Michael Rankine  for 3 (46)	13 Jon McLaughlin
15 Andrew Taylor for 6 (46)	14 Louis Horne for 2 (71)
16 Andy McWilliams for 7 (46)	15 Jack Pelter for 7 (71)
17 Simon Russell for 9 (46)	16 James O'Brien for 8 (46)
18 Michael Emmerson for 11 (63)	17 Joe Keehan for 11 (46)
19 Luke Waterfall for 19 (46)	18 Rory Boulding for 18 (63)
20 Michael Duckworth for 2 (63)	19 James Hanson for 9 (63)
21 Jamie Hopcutt for 4 (81)	20 Luke Dean for 4 (63)
22 Dean Lisles for 5 (71)

MATCH OFFICIALS:
Referee	M Heywood
Assistant Referee	D Street
Assistant Referee	M Dicicco
4th Official	A Madley

GOALSCORERS:
YORK CITY	BRADFORD CITY
	Williams (15)
	M Boulding (22)
	.