YORK City boss Billy McEwan admitted the club's fans were right to express their dissatisfaction with last night's disappointing 0-0 draw with Southport.

The Minstermen were booed off the pitch following a drab 90 minutes against the Conference's bottom club just three days after being applauded at the end of their unlucky 2-1 defeat to play-off contenders Grays Athletic.

McEwan also criticised his side's mental approach to the game.

He said: "The fans were raving about our football against Grays but they were disgruntled and unhappy with this performance and rightly so. If I could have changed all 11 players at half-time I would have done because I was embarrassed.

"They have taken the praise when it's been warranted and you also have to take the stick, as I do as manager. Possibly I should have changed the team in three or four areas but I stand and fall by my decisions and have not done too bad up to now.

"We were mentally right for the Grays game because we knew it was going to be tough but I think we thought it would be easy against a team bottom of the table even though I had stressed the importance of attitude before the match."

City did manage not to concede a goal for only the second time in ten Conference matches but McEwan was taking little consolation from that statistic, saying: "We can't be proud of a clean sheet against a team that are bottom of the table.

"If there's anything positive to come out of it, then it's the fact that we played poorly but didn't lose. We were not a patch on the side that lost to Grays and we could not have had any complaints if we had lost because Southport played well and we allowed them to play."

On-loan Chesterfield striker Tcham N'Toya was substituted after 55 minutes for Andy Bishop but McEwan added: "The boy came off because he's not played a lot of football and I am struggling to pick out anybody who did well."

The Minstermen must now travel to Woking on Saturday looking to recoup points after taking just one from a possible nine in three successive home games.

Updated: 09:53 Wednesday, January 25, 2006