YORK City boss Colin Walker believes the club are one of ten in the Blue Square Premier capable of mounting a promotion challenge.

The Minstermen kick off the new season at Crawley Town on Saturday and have only been installed 25-1,12th favourites by the league’s sponsors in between Grays and Histon in the market.

Stevenage lead the field at 11-2, but Walker is optimistic of upsetting the bookmakers’ odds with his side completing an unbeaten pre-season programme following Saturday’s 1-0 win at UniBond League first division outfit Sheffield FC.

Speaking about his hopes for the new season, the City manager said: “My ambition is to get a positive result at Crawley first but, if we are talking over the whole campaign, there are probably ten teams who can do something and I feel we can be included as one of them.”

David McGurk’s 89th-minute goal gave the Minstermen a late victory at the Coach and Horses Ground following other pre-season wins against Hartlepool (1-0), Harrogate Railway (2-1) and Tadcaster Albion (6-0).

As well as the Hartlepool triumph, Walker’s men have also held Middlesbrough (2-2), Barnsley (2-2) and Leeds United (1-1) at KitKat Crescent and, despite feeling that Saturday’s performance could have been better, the City boss declared himself happy with his team’s preparation for their first league game.

He said: “We’ve been on a par with the four teams we played at home. Those four matches were outstanding result wise, performance wise and in terms of getting fitness levels up.

“At Harrogate Railway, we were sloppy and, against Sheffield, we played some of our best football for the first 20 minutes but, because there was no end product, it then turned into individuals trying to score a goal.

“Their ’keeper was absolutely fantastic though. We missed chances, but I thought he had glue on his gloves and you get games like that. We got more of a mental workout than a physical one.”

Walker added that his players might have pressed stronger claims for starting places at Crawley and stressed as many as ten places could still be up for grabs during the last week of pre-season training.

He said: “You can probably say David McGurk will play on Saturday but, apart from that, nothing else is decided. Maybe some players thought the team was already picked before the game at Sheffield because I’m not sure we had people showing they wanted to be in the side for Crawley.

Midfielder Steven Hogg limped out of the game after 27 minutes with the minor thigh problem that has been a regular irritation during his pre-season and the injury will be monitored this week.

Teenage goalkeeper Josh Mimms played the full 90 minutes with the thigh injury to summer signing Michael Ingham – described as the only “downside” to pre-season by Walker – keeping him sidelined for a second successive match.

Walker has targeted another ’keeper – either as a replacement for first-choice Ingham or cover for Mimms – should he be ruled out for the start of the campaign.

Mimms kept a second successive clean sheet on a quiet afternoon at Sheffield and Walker said: “Josh did all right. He’s got possession of the position at the moment and we will see what happens.”