YORK City boss Colin Walker paid tribute to teenage ’keeper Josh Mimms after the former Liverpool trainee helped secure a 1-0 victory over Wrexham.
Mimms was thrust into the action after 43 minutes of last night’s Blue Square Premier clash at KitKat Crescent when on-loan Birmingham City stopper Artur Krysiak dislocated a finger – an injury that saw the 18-year-old Pole return to St Andrews this morning.
The Rotherham-born rookie, who missed out on starting the season when Walker signed Krysiak following a thigh injury to first-choice Michael Ingham, then made two excellent saves during an impressive second-half display.
At the other end, skipper Mark Greaves headed in the only goal of the game on 74 minutes to leave City as one of five sides to have taken maximum points from their first two fixtures after defeating Crawley 1-0 on Saturday.
A delighted Walker said: “Two clean sheets in a row is a prized possession for us and I thought Josh Mimms was absolutely fantastic with some of the saves he made after he came on. That’s massive credit to him because he was disappointed not to be playing but, all of a sudden, his chance came and I can’t speak highly enough of him. He’s proven me right – rather than wrong – as I signed him because I felt he was a good ’keeper.”
Walker will now decide whether to recall Ingham, who has almost made a full recovery from his thigh injury for tomorrow’s home clash with Histon.
He added: “Artur will probably have to go back now and Michael’s not too far away from being fit. We weren’t going to rush him back.
“We may look at that now, although Mimmsy has proven an able replacement and Jonathon McDonald will be on the bench otherwise because I don’t want to get another ’keeper in on loan.”
Walker also pointed out that Greaves’ goal was a justification of his decision to use the experienced 33-year-old in a midfield role, despite his skipper’s apparent apprehension.
The City boss joked: “He really thinks he’s a centre-half, but I think he’s doing an excellent job for us in midfield and to score a goal as well is first class.”
Whereas Walker decided to stick with the starting XI for the full 90 minutes of Saturday’s win at Crawley, he used his squad to good effect against Wrexham.
The City boss replaced Richard Brodie with Niall Henderson and changed shape to play Craig Farrell alongside Daniel McBreen 11 minutes before his side broke the deadlock.
He then substituted the tiring McBreen with Onome Sodje late on. Walker said: “Richard and Daniel worked very hard, as did others like Simon Rusk, but if they can only give us that for 60 or 70 minutes that will do for me.”
Walker added that he hopes to bring in two new players ahead of tomorrow’s game against last season’s bogey team Histon.
The Cambridgeshire villagers beat City 4-1 and 3-0 last season but Walker believes his side are now better equipped to counter their physical approach.
He said: “I think we can cope with everything. We’ve got a strong team, whose will to win is excellent. We will be looking hard at the players today because it’s two games in three days but there won’t be anybody who doesn’t want to play after two wins and two clean sheets.”
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