ADAM HINSHELWOOD is confident that Ollie Pearce can live up to the expectations that he sets of himself.

Pearce, who made his non-competitive York City debut on Saturday in the 2-1 defeat to Sheffield United, arrived at the Minstermen in May after an incredible campaign with Worthing in the Vanarama National League South.

The 28-year-old talisman bagged 43 goals in 46 matches in the 2023/24 season, before following the likes of Joe Felix and Ricky Aguiar to York to link back up with Hinshelwood.

However, Hinshelwood has made it clear that he will not be putting pressure on Pearce to hit the ground running, as the striker himself will be backing himself to do so.

“Ollie has always had that expectation on him, if you score the amount of goals he has scored in the last four or five years then he puts that kind of pressure on himself, like I do,” Hinshelwood told the Press.

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“We have high standards and high demands, he’ll be fine with it.

“No one puts more pressure on themselves to score goals than Ollie will, it’s just how he is as a person and he thrives off of that.

“I like how he has linked with a few of the players already in training, if Ollie’s not scoring goals but the team are winning games of football then he will be happy, as we all will be.

Adam Hinshelwood has high hopes for Ollie Pearce. Picture: Tom PooleAdam Hinshelwood has high hopes for Ollie Pearce. Picture: Tom Poole (Image: Tom Poole)

“We don’t need to put that sort of pressure on him, we’ve got enough firepower that we’ve brought into the building now, and that was already at the club.

“Not to put too much pressure on Ollie, but someone who scores that many goals year in, year out, will have that pressure on themselves and high demand of themselves.”

Hinshelwood also has no concerns on Pearce making that step up to the Vanarama National League, with staff members Paul Harmston and Sam Mannings both doing work with the new signings that have made the move from part-time football.  

Hinshelwood explained: “It’s something that Paul and Sam, our new physio, have been working on.

“They’ve done brilliant in pre-season and it is something that they have said to be wary of, I wouldn’t of thought too much about it really.

“We’ve tried to include them in a lot of it and they’ve done really well, they’ve really embraced the club that they are at and have seemed to enjoy every minute of it.

“It’s nice that there is a good connection, and there is a good spirit amongst the group at the moment.

“We’re quite keen to see that play out, where it matters on the pitch.”