Adam Hinshelwood dedicates York City’s 4-0 win vs Rochdale to players

The York manager had accepted criticism after his City side dropped to a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Braintree Town on Saturday, even admitting that he felt that the title race for the National League was over – with Barnet then 14 points clear.

York played their one game in hand this evening to reduce that deficit to 11 points, after Hinshelwood had spoken on removing the pressure from his players ahead of a potential play-off run.

So, when his York side stormed to an exhilarating 4-0 win against fellow play-off hopefuls Rochdale on their own patch, it was a performance which delighted the City boss.

The Minstermen held a meeting to address their recent inconsistency, with Hinshelwood proud of how his players responded against Rochdale.

“I want to give massive credit to the players,” Hinshelwood commended.

“Our form has been a little bit stuck as of late, so for them to go out there and do that after the disappointment of Saturday [is great]. 

“Those results can happen in football, Braintree is a tough place to go when they’re on form. 

“They’ve got some form players and we wanted to bounce back in style and with a big performance. 

“A lot of questions get asked of me and the team selection and how we want it to play, but that was as close as we want it to look for us. 

“We had a bit of a meeting with us all and we just said that if we carry on playing how we were, in terms of everyone wanting the ball, having the bravery not just in possession, but without the ball as well. 

“Leaving Callum Howe one-versus-one and being on the front foot. We want to go and press and I think we saw that tonight. 

“Everyone was looking like they wanted to go and get on the ball, there was an element of risk to it but also bravery. 

“That’s us at our best tonight. 

“It’s what we’ve got to find now for the last seven games, maybe the pitches haven’t helped but this was one of the best ones we’ve played on, with it having a bit of water on it, but we can’t have any excuses. 

“I’m obviously delighted, the fans as well, everyone, it was a great night for everybody. 

“The supporters have come and have sung from start to finish – they have really drove us on.”

City scored four hugely impressive strikes, starting in the first-half when Ollie Pearce cheekily flicked Joe Felix’s cross into the bottom left corner.

He then turned provider in the second 45 when beating the offside trap to send Burnley loanee Lewis Richardson through on goal, who delivered with a composed strike.

Pearce was then back as City’s goal scorer, reacting to Dipo Akinyemi’s ball into the box to tuck home.

The scoring was rounded off as Akinyemi managed to squeeze an impressive through ball to Ryan Fallowfield, who ventured forward for his first goal of the season.

It would be hard to pick a favourite from the collection, but Hinshelwood admitted that Pearce’s opener was his pick of the bunch.

The boss laughed: “I like the first one! How he has come up with a finish there, I’ll never know. 

“It was a great through ball from Ollie as well for the second goal, and then he’s just in the right place at the right time. 

“It’s good to see Dipo come on, I looked behind me today we’ve got Dipo and Junior [Luamba] that we can introduce, and then Stonesy [Josh Stones] and Lenny [Lenell John-Lewis].

“They can add some real physicality, you’ve got your footballers out there and then we can change it for the physicality.”

Next up for York is a return to the LNER Community Stadium on Saturday, after three consecutive away matches for the Minstermen.

Hinshelwood remains intent on remaining humble for the challenge of Wealdstone (3pm), whilst also speaking on the lifted restrictions for his players against Rochdale.

He continued: “Stay humble, keep working hard and try to keep getting this performance on the regular. 

“A lot has been made of my demands of the players and how I’m a bit of a perfectionist, but when I see the team perform like that, that’s the kind of level I want them to aspire to get towards week in, week out. 

“When I see them fall short of it, I try to remind them that they are below that level. 

“There was definitely a freedom about them today, like we said, it looked like there was a bit of pressure on their shoulders and we definitely didn’t play like that tonight.”