JOHN ASKEY has insisted that Notts County are “the best footballing team” in the Vanarama National League after his York City side were beaten by the Magpies.

York fell to a 3-1 defeat on Saturday against County. Quevin Castro’s wonder-goal free-kick and a brace from Macaulay Langstaff rendered Fraser Kerr’s maiden City goal a consolation.

It was a first loss in six for City, who had won three and drawn two of their previous five games.

When asked if County were as good as it gets in the National League, City boss Askey replied: “I think so. They’re the best footballing team, by far. 

“There’s one or two, like Chesterfield and Wrexham, those three are probably on a different level than most. 

“But we’ve just got to work really hard as a group and then hopefully, when we don’t play the bigger teams, then we pick up the points that we need to try and get into the play-offs.”

Though Castro’s goal came from a set piece, both of Langstaff’s goals could have been dealt with better by City.

The striker had a free header for his first goal, while his second was the product of a poor pass amongst the Minstermen’s defence.

“I think when you play them, they’re always going to have more of the ball. What was disappointing was the goals we conceded,” reflected Askey.

“Sometimes when a team has so much of the ball, those things happen. We got ourselves back in the game at 1-1, then when the cross has come in, it should be headed clear (for County’s second goal). 

“That was disappointing because we got them going a little bit. Again, it’s 2-1 and you’re still in the game. 

“Not a lot was happening. To let them off the hook like we did, again, with a poor error, is disappointing. 

“We’ve just got to learn from today, and they’ll be up there, in and around it.

"We’ve got to move onto next Saturday’s game now and hopefully start on a run again.”

The City manager continued: “It’s disappointing as much as anything that we haven’t played (well).

“We’ve got to be better, better on the ball, there’s got to be more movement. We could’ve exposed them with better balls in behind them, because they play a high line, but the runs weren’t good enough. 

“A lot of the time we were getting offside when there was no need to. There’s lots for us to learn from, obviously we’re disappointed, especially with the crowd being so big, because we wanted our supporters to go home happy. 

“But it wasn’t to be today, which is probably the first time, while we’ve had a big crowd in here, that we haven’t performed."