YORK City are considering switching to a back three after looking more solid defensively in that formation during the second half of a 2-0 defeat at Stockport.

The Minstermen made the switch after trailing to Darren Stephenson and Matty Warburton goals at the break in the National League North fixture.

Their efforts mean City have still only kept one clean sheet in 22 contests – against rock-bottom North Ferriby – but sporting directer Dave Penney was encouraged by the rearguard improvement when Dan Parslow joined fellow centre-halves Jonny Burn and Hamza Bencherif and Connor Brown and David Ferguson operated as wing-backs during a goal-less second period.

With Aidan Connolly also expected to return for next weekend’s trip to Tamworth after missing out with a virus at Edgeley Park, but Jon Parkin ruled out due to injury concerns over the 3G pitch, Penney admitted there is plenty to consider tactically over the coming days.

“I thought they Stockport won the tactical battle in the first half and we won it in the second, but they took their chances and we didn’t,” Penney pointed out. “We went three at the back to match them up and we had to go a bit more direct because the pitch was awful, but we’ve spoken about the system before because of the personnel we’ve got.

“Dan Parslow’s a good player, Jonny Burn is good on the ball and Hamza’s happy with it as well. The full-backs Josh Law, Connor Brown and David Ferguson are also better going forward in my opinion.

“We swapped it around early in the second half and put Jonny Burn on the right rather because he is better stepping out with the ball in terms of distribution than Dan, who is more of a head-it-and-kick-it, old-school footballer, so we put him in the centre. I feel it’s definitely something to look at going forward, because I thought it worked quite well in the conditions.

“We’ll have to see who we line up with in midfield though at Tamworth, because Aidan could come back into the hole and you need good players with a low centre of gravity on 3G pitches. He could cause problems there if we get him on the ball and there’s a lot to digest and look at.

“It will be a completely different game on the 3G. Big Jon won’t be involved, but we’ll be able to pass the ball more because the roll will be truer than it was at Stockport and we’re a decent team with good players, so we’ve got to take advantage of that.”

Top-scorer Parkin will definitely play no part on the artificial surface, which aggravates an old knee injury for the 25-goal marksman, with Penney adding: “I understand he’ll be out for two or three weeks if he plays and we’ve got to look at the bigger picture, because we can’t afford to miss him for that kind of period.

“I had a similar situation last season at Guiseley, where we had Michael Rankine, Simon Walton and Marcus Williams, who all couldn’t play on it. Older players do carry injuries but, with younger lads, you find now that they’ve trained on 3G nearly every day when they’ve come up through the academies, so they’re used to it.

“Jon’s a big miss when we haven’t got him, because he’s our focal point, but we’ll have to play a different style, with no big man at the top and somebody else will need to step up.”

City’s management staff will certainly be looking for a better cutting edge than was evident at Edgeley Park, with Penney reasoning: “The result was disappointing because they only had two or three chances, whereas their goalkeeper was named man of the match and, when we did eventually beat him, they cleared the ball off the line.

“We’re normally clinical, but we weren’t quite at it. I lost count of how many chances we had, but we couldn’t put them away.

“I think if we’d have got one, you could see another coming and we might have ended up with three or four. But the goals we conceded were bad.

“The first one came from our attack and they got in too easily and got a shot off too easily. Adam (Bartlett) was also disappointed with the second.

“It went through him and squirmed in, but there was no bounce on the pitch and it was particularly bad in the penalty boxes. The shot just stayed flat when it should have bounced up.”

Penney confirmed that City will train on 3G pitches for two days prior to the visit to the Lamb Stadium.

He also made light of a confrontation between City manager Martin Gray and his Stockport counterpart Jim Gannon at the final whistle in Greater Manchester.

“They were just wishing each other Happy New Year, because they hadn’t seen each other since Christmas,” the former Doncaster chief grinned.