YORK City boss Terry Dolan insisted he was down but not out after the Minstermen's nine match unbeaten run was brought to an abrupt end by two goals in as many minutes at Chester.

But a candid City chief indicated he was losing patience with his goal shy attackers and would be stepping up his hunt for fresh forward blood before the start of next season.

The win lifted the hosts off the bottom of the Football League while defeat saw City drop down one pace to 20 and ended hopes the Minstermen would equal a 16-year record of ten games without defeat in a season.

But Dolan refused to be too critical of his weary, injury-hit troops

"I am disappointed to lose 2-0 and that our run has come to an end but it was going to happen sooner or later," he said.

"We had no problems for the first hour and then fell apart in the last half-hour

"Two goals in the space of minute did for us and we did not have enough fight to get something back out of the game.

"The reasons for that were partly do with the squad - with players out injured and suspended we have had to make changes.

"And two games in three days was perhaps too much for one or two, if we had one or two more fresh changes it might have been a little bit different.

"But I can't be too critical, one defeat in ten is not bad and if we manage to go another ten before the next defeat we will be quite satisfied.

"The players on the whole have worked very hard and unfortunately in the last half-hour today they didn't."

With striker Colin Alcide ruled out through injury and Mark Sertori relegated to the bench, there were starting recalls for midfielder Paul Talbot and John Williams.

Transfer-listed midfielder Craig Skinner also made his first senior appearance since February as a second-half substitute. Young Marc Thompson was also named in the squad for the first time in a month and also came on as a second-half substitute.

"We have had a look at one or two things and lets just say one or two decisions have been made for me, I will say no more," said Dolan.

"But it was again clear for everyone to see our lack of quality up front. I have been saying long enough that our defenders cannot keep soaking up the pressure.

"I have made my feelings clear to everybody including the supporters where the problem lies and we have got between now and July to sort it out."

On possible irons in the fire, the City boss said: "It depends who is available."

But he insisted it was not necessarily a matter of having to ship players out before bringing in new blood.

"I will be looking at the situation carefully but in the meantime it is up to those players who do get their chance to show what they can do."

The City chief meanwhile was left facing an ever lengthening injury list.

With Alcide, Barry Jones, Christian Fox, Lee Bullock, Wayne Hall all on the injury table and Kevin Hulme suspended Dolan revealed Steve Agnew was withdrawn midway through the second half because of a hip injury.

Darren Edmondson was also subbed feeling unwell.