Hinshelwood’s happiness as York City show scoring quality

York have been almost faultless in front of goal lately, scoring 17 in their last four matches, including a rampant 7-2 triumph over Aldershot Town last Saturday.

It comes after City succumbed to a frustrating 2-1 defeat away to Braintree Town, with Hinshelwood making it clear post-match that he intended to lift the pressure from his players shoulders.

That has proved fruitful so far, with York achieving four wins on the trot, and finding welcome momentum ahead of a potential push in the play-offs.

Hinshelwood has enjoyed seeing his side play with more fluidity, but also wants his players to remain intent in managing clean sheets.

“We’ve really, since Braintree, worked on our style and we’ve worked on us being a bit more fluid,” Hinshelwood told the Press.

“We’ve been playing to our structure, but when it gets to the final third I want there to be a bit more freedom for the full-backs, for the wingers to come in and create overloads.

“We want the attacking players to have a bit more freedom and flexibility, and I think that’s really shone.

“At the same time, we’re a team that wants to keep clean sheets so we want to carry on with that record.

“We don’t want to be stuck with 19 come the end of the season, we want to get as many of them on the board as we can.

“It would be lovely to have half of the games to have featured in to have clean sheets, and I think that for us to do that, we’ve got to go perfect now between now and the end of the season.

“There’s a lot of in-house targets for us to set, but we want to focus on both ends of the game really.

“I did really enjoy watching us playing with that fluidity, especially in that final third.”

York’s recent prowess in front of goal has been aided by their impressive strength in depth, with Aldershot manager Tommy Widdrington even saying: “I think they’ve got the best attack force in the division, not just individuals, but the way they do it.”

After Dipo Akinyemi struggled with injuries earlier in the season and Callum Harriott also leaving the club due to personal reasons, City have recruited impressively, with Lewis Richardson scoring a brace last Saturday and Junior Luamba continuing to cause problems.

Hinshelwood has been pleased by the impact of York’s attacking options, and talked about the multiple dynamics he has available.

He continued: “Ty [Sinclair] was missing for a game and then Ash [Nathaniel-George] comes back in, who wasn’t featuring much in the squad, and has been unbelievable.

“I always thought that he could have this kind of impact, and he’s been pestering me to play on that left-hand side.

“He’s got the opportunity to do that, and he hasn’t looked back really, he’s been really good.

“Lewis has been really good, then you’ve got Junior and Ty who can play there as well.

“We’ve got some real attacking options, Lenny [Lenell John-Lewis] and Stonesy [Josh Stones] who can play down the middle as well, and then Ollie [Pearce] who can play a bit deeper.

“There’s lots of options that I’m really happy with.

“We highlighted that a few months ago with the wide players, that we were a bit low in that position.

“We’ve done really well identifying and getting in two excellent wide players for us.”