FORMER Reading player Phil Hadland has turned his back on York City and looks set to join the Minstermen's Division Three rivals Rochdale.

The 19-year-old was offered terms by City chief Terry Dolan last week after impressing during a month-long trial and had verbally agreed to commit his future to Bootham Crescent.

However, the right-sided player has had a change of heart over the weekend with Rochdale emerging as his likely destination.

While the news was a blow to manager Dolan, the City boss is upbeat and revealed the "possession principal" is dominating his thinking after Saturday's 2-0 victory over North Ferriby United.

Having indicated City are likely to field a reserve team for the North Riding Senior Cup final with Scarborough on Wednesday, Saturday's match was the last for Dolan's first team squad before this Saturday's opener at Chesterfield.

And the City chief admitted his side's performance against the UniBond League newcomers was promising if not perfect coming after a week that had seen York tackle the Premiership might of both Manchester United and Middlesbrough.

"We knew it was going to be a bit more realistic than our other games," declared Dolan.

"Apart from when we got caught by a quick free-kick from which Alan Fettis made a brilliant save, after the first 20minutes I thought we never looked in any danger.

"We were doing one or two things that I wanted us to do and then we got the goals at the right time really. But I was disappointed with our second-half showing.

"We should have made them work a lot harder by keeping possession of the ball, but we didn't do it well enough."

Peter Duffield grabbed his third goal of pre-season just five minutes before the break before Ferriby midfielder Ivan Finch headed Graham Potter's cross past his own goalkeeper on the stroke of half-time.

"If the cross is put in at pace then they are difficult for people to deal with and we are not bothered who scores," reasoned Dolan.

"But in he second-half we gave the ball away far too easily when it went forward.

"I think psychologically when you go two up, whoever you are playing, you have got to make sure of victory and what we have got learn is not to give anything away.

"It wasn't a case of sitting back and defending, it was more a case of making them work even harder and keeping the ball.

"We didn't do it well enough and it became a bit disjointed in the second-half."

In a boost for Dolan, central defenders Barry Jones and North Ferriby-born Gary Hobson, who both missed Saturday's match through injuries, were expected to return to training today.