MICHAEL COULSON has been told he will line up as a centre forward for tonight’s home match with Torquay.

The 25-year-old attacker switched back to the flanks following Josh Carson’s injury during Saturday’s 1-0 win at Portsmouth. But City boss Nigel Worthington has been so impressed by Coulson’s performances as an out-and-out striker that he wants him to carry on through the middle despite Carson’s absence.

Coulson has scored three times in the last five games and, without those goals, the team would be six points worse off, leading Worthington to insist: “Michael will be staying up front.

“He’s done really well and I think that’s his number one position. You have to be fair to the lad because he’s working hard and doing a job for the team up there.

“You don’t disrupt something when there’s no need to disrupt it and he’s finding little holes and looks dangerous.”

Coulson, meanwhile, has suggested he would be amenable to a return out wide if required.

He said: “I’ve really enjoyed my time up front but it’s up to the manager if he wants to put me back out wide and that would be fine by me.”

The former Scarborough and Barnsley forward also admitted his spectacular fourth-minute strike at Fratton Park ranks alongside others, such as his debut goal during City’s first game back as a Football League club at Doncaster, adding: “Myself and Ben Davies have have been working on that move from the throw-in for a while and we did a few practice runs the day before.

“It was great to see it go in and it was special because of where we were, so it’s up there with the best in my career.”

Out-of-contract Coulson is hoping too that his form will earn him a new deal at Bootham Crescent.

“It would probably be nice to get something sorted on that front because you never know what can happen as we have seen with the injuries to Josh and Wes (Fletcher) but the important thing is just to keep playing and doing my best in every match,” he reasoned.

“Then, hopefully, the contract will come.

“It’s pretty obvious I want to stay at York but I don’t want to talk about the contract situation too much and we will see what happens over the next few weeks.”

Worthington, meanwhile, is unsure whether Middlesbrough winger Ryan Brobbel could fill the void left by Carson’s injury.

The Northern Ireland Under-21 international netted three times in 13 outings during a spell with the Minstermen earlier this season before falling out of favour when the club could only name five on-loan players in a matchday squad.

“He could be in the mix but I don’t know if he’s available and I would have to decide whether he could do enough for the side,” Worthington said.

“Anybody who comes in for that position would need to put a real shift in like Josh Carson because we can’t have somebody just standing out there and not doing the defensive side.”