YORK City have secured the services of former Barnsley midfielder Alex Wollerton.

The 20-year-old joins the Minstermen following his release from Barnsley and becomes the third midfield player to join in the last few days.

A former Leeds United youngster, Wollerton has experience of National League North from his time on loan at Darlington in 2018.

He has been on trial at City during pre-season.

Manager Steve Watson said: “He’s another midfielder who has been in the Championship, an under-23s player with real energy and one of the fittest players you’ll ever see at this level.

“This puts us at around 24 players and that’s a good squad, albeit we have around five or six teenagers who might be as backup at the start of the season – I don’t think we need much more than that.

“Never say never, we’ve actually used a hell of a lot less of the budget compared to this time last year so hopefully there will be something left if somebody does maybe pop up that I think can make a huge difference. 

“But at the moment we will definitely work with what we’ve got because we think it’s strong.”

The signing comes after the double swoop of Akil Wright and Owen Gamble, both of whom can play in midfield, with the addition of Gamble's versatility as a right wing-back.

Speaking on his options yesterday, Watson said: “We want to be a forward-thinking team this year and won't want two defensive midfielders in the side at any one time.

“We’ve got players now like (Olly) Dyson who sits at the top of the midfield three, Paddy (McLaughlin) and (Michael) Woods who can do a bit of both, Harry Bunn who doesn’t play solely as an up-front striker - sometimes he drops down and he is in and around there so we are going to have good variations. It’s just about finding the right ones for the right games.

“We didn’t use a lot of players last year I thought we were pretty sort of stuck with our first team, who had done great, but we didn’t make many changes we only maybe used 14 or 15 players in rotation whereas now we have a lot of good options – a lot of young lads, so as I say all the places are pretty much up for grabs for the first couple of games.”

The deal is subject to FA and National League approval.