YORK City centre-back Tyler Cordner hopes to regain his form after joining fellow Vanarama National League side Ebbsfleet United on a season-long loan.

The defender was one of the Minstermen’s statement signings last summer, arriving for a six-figure fee from Aldershot Town after the club had triggered his release clause.

Cordner scored nine goals in his 50 appearances for the Shots and had been voted as both their Supporters' Player of the Season and Players’ Player of the Season shortly before joining City.

But he has failed to live up to his billing in a turbulent first season at the LNER Community Stadium.

The centre-back, who scored his first York goal in a 2-2 draw with Altrincham in mid-August, had made a bright start at his new club, only missing one game – a 4-2 home defeat to Barnet after having picked up five yellow cards – until the end of November.

That run included back-to-back goals against Hartlepool United and Oxford City – the latter a thunderous long-range strike amongst the club’s goals of the season.

However, he only featured once more under Neal Ardley - their 1-1 draw against Ebbsfleet days before Christmas – and was either named on the bench or left out of the squad entirely throughout the rest of the former Solihull Moors manager’s tenure.

Cordner was re-instated for Adam Hinshelwood's first game in charge, but has not featured since.Cordner was re-instated for Adam Hinshelwood's first game in charge, but has not featured since.

Adam Hinshelwood’s appointment at the end of February brought with it a new opportunity for Cordner to impress, having been re-instated into the starting line-up for his first game in charge at home to Wealdstone.

The 25-year-old played 66 minutes of the Minstermen’s 3-2 defeat but failed to make a matchday squad for the remainder of the season.

Questions had been asked of the defender’s fitness, something that he has been working hard to put right.

But co-chairman Matt Uggla told the York Hospital Ball podcast earlier this month that Cordner’s loan exit was imminent – explaining that his signing had not worked out for either party, but that the club did not want to cut ties with the centre-half.

He said: “The view on Tyler is that he is a top guy, I really like him, but reliability, if you look at this talent level, then he is probably far too good for this level. He should be playing much higher.

“For whatever reason it hasn’t worked out. For us we don’t want to cut ties completely because he is still a fantastic player. He has to go out and prove it for a season that he can do it for a season.

“If you look at the season he had before he came to us at Aldershot, he was absolutely fantastic and he had I think 12 goals, England C captain, and on paper it really should have worked out. For a variety of different reasons, he hasn’t really kicked on here.

“We’ll see how he does this year and reassess it.”

Cordner now returns for a second spell at the Kuflink Stadium, having made 20 appearances on loan from Bournemouth in the curtailed 2019-20 season.

He believes he has unfinished business with the Fleet – and hopes to use his loan to rediscover his form.

Speaking to the club’s media, he admitted: “I won’t be the first to say it, but I haven’t probably lived up to the expectations that I should have done at York.

“I’m not afraid to say that it hasn’t gone the way that I wanted to, and I’ll be the first to admit that.

“This is definitely a reset for me to get back to the form that I was in at Aldershot and try and prove not just to myself but to everyone else that I’m capable of that.”