York City's stop-go season is just beginning in earnest.

That was the message from manager Terry Dolan last night at the annual general meeting of Bootham Crescent Holdings, of which York City FC is a wholly-owned subsidiary.

The Minstermen chief told the shareholders that City's campaign had not effectively started until the last few weeks, culminating in Tuesday's thrilling FA Cup second-round replay win at Reading.

"The season so far has been very disappointing, but I will not say it's all because we've had so many key players injured," he said.

"That is part of the reason, but also part of the reason is some players have not done as well as expected and also we have not had a settled team. The signs in the last three or four weeks, though, have been encouraging.

"We've lost Peter Swan, Gary Hobson, Chris Fairclough, Christian Fox and Peter Duffield to injury. That's five players who, if they were fit, would have been in the team. Any team who lose five star players is going to struggle a bit.

"It seems to me our season has never really started until these last two or three weeks. Darren Patterson has come in and you can tell straight away he's a leader, and Chris Iwelumo has made a difference up front. Alex Mathie is a lot fitter, David McNiven has started to score goals and we're looking like scoring more.

"I said to the players after the Plymouth game on Saturday that they can't keep playing like that and end up losing games, because we pummelled them but lost (1-0). At Reading we sneaked two goals but we won the game (3-1).

"The players have to have more belief because they have got the ability. Fingers crossed, we can get on a run and I'm honestly very optimistic for the second half of the season."

Chairman Douglas Craig added: "At the end of last season, we would not have come back from 2-0 down (to draw 2-2 in the first game) and then 1-0 down (in the replay) against Reading.

"I don't think we would have had the determination and fighting qualities which it looks as if they're developing."

Last night's annual meeting approved club accounts which showed a loss of £667,255 for the year ending June 30 of this year as reported in the Evening Press last month.

Also, Barry Swallow was re-elected and Colin Webb re-appointed as directors.