BILLY McEwan has called on his strikers to shoot more and his midfielders to operate further forward as he seeks to improve York City's poor record in front of goal.

Only relegation-threatened Farnborough and Leigh RMI have netted fewer times than City in the Conference this season after Saturday's 2-0 home defeat to Woking.

But McEwan believes he has already identified reasons for such a disappointing return in front of goal.

He said: "There were some positive signs but their 'keeper wasn't overworked. We got in some good situations in the final third but didn't shoot.

"We were passing balls to other people instead of accepting responsibility. You must have the belief you can score and be more clinical.

"We have also got to get more bodies into the box in what I call the back-door position. Our forwards need better support and the wide men were too deep.

"We've got wide midfield players instead of natural wingers. I would have liked Donovan to kick on 20 yards further up the field and I felt Merris was playing as a left-back but Rome wasn't built in a day."

McEwan added that his preparations were not helped by leading scorer Andy Bishop's absence last week after his call-up to the England National Game XI.

Bishop only trained with the Minstermen on Friday and McEwan added: "The movement from our strikers has got to be better and I had hoped to work on that last week but you can't do it in just one day."

McEwan felt Shaun Smith did "OK" after replacing the suspended Sean Davies at left-back.

The City boss also replaced right-back Graeme Law with Michael Staley on 70 minutes and said: "Our full-backs were our spare players the way Woking played.

"I've been told he's a decent prospect so I wanted to have a look at him (Staley) because we were getting into good situations but lacked a bit of quality at times.

"He got caught a little bit for their second goal but he's a young boy who's got a lot to learn."

Midfielder Bryon Webster also had to be substituted after receiving a knock. He will be assessed before deciding whether he travels to Exeter for tomorrow night's match.

Presently there's been no snow fall in Devon, and there was little prospect of the weather deteriorating before the clash at St James Park. The problem for City and fans will be getting there.

Updated: 10:32 Monday, February 21, 2005