TEENAGE goalkeeper David Stockdale and winger Bryan Stewart have been offered first-year professional terms to stay at KitKat Crescent.

Left-sided defender Stephen Baynes, who was the youth coaches' Player of the Year this season, has also been handed the opportunity to sign a one-year contract.

But striker Adam Arthur has been released despite his hat-trick for the reserves last week and midfielder Kane Ashcroft has suffered the same fate.

York City boss Billy McEwan informed the third-year apprentices of his decisions after releasing nine players yesterday and placing Steve Davis and Paul D Robinson on the transfer list.

Should Davis and Robinson move on and everybody that has been offered a contract accepts terms, it will leave the Minstermen with ten players boasting first-team experience, although half of those retained would be teenagers in Stewart, Stockdale, Byron Webster, Michael Staley and Robbie Haw.

Goalkeeper Chris Porter, at 25, is the eldest player from the remaining five, followed by Darren Dunning and Dave Merris and 20-year-old pair Lev Yalcin and Graeme Law.

Having conceded ten goals in the club's last two games, defensive reinforcements are clearly going to be a priority over the summer as there will be no recognised centre back on the City books if Davis leaves with Kyle Armstrong, Paul Groves and Sean Davies all released and Lee Grant returning to Aston Villa.

McEwan has also questioned the club's ability to continue paying the remaining two years of player-manager Chris Brass' contract.

Strikers will be sought too after the club's second worst season in front of goal.

Neither Paul Robinson nor Ben Jackson have been retained and, with Paul D Robinson on the list and Arthur released, last season's 12-goal top marksman Andy Bishop and rookie Haw are, at the moment, City's only striking options.

Experienced campaigner Shaun Smith and first-year professional midfielder Matthew Coad have also been told that they would have to seek new employers over the summer and McEwan feels the right balance between experience and youth will need to be found next season.

He said: "We had a lot of old players last season and I think younger players need bringing in. We did have young players last season but they were just babies and our older players were getting too old."

Former Blackburn Rovers midfielder Dunning could be placed on the transfer list if he does not accept a pay cut for the second season of his two-year contract.

Updated: 10:44 Wednesday, April 27, 2005