ADAM HINSHELWOOD saw ‘encouraging’ signs as York City claimed a first non-competitive victory of the 2024/25 season at the LNER Community Stadium in a 2-1 win versus Grimsby Town.

An early goal from Billy Chadwick was cancelled out after a pass back from Ricky Aguiar caught Rory Watson out and ended as a goal, before Lenell John-Lewis returned to haunt his former club with a powerful header in the 75th minute.

Hinshelwood saw positive signs in the York performance and was pleased to defeat a Grimsby side playing their football in a higher division, but also recognised that there is still work to be done ahead of the Vanarama National League season.

“We played some good stuff today, there were definitely signs of some of the stuff we’ve been working on,” Hinshelwood enthused.

“The goal conceded, I said to the lads that I take full responsibility for the goal because that’s how I have asked them to play, and you can see that when we get it right that it causes problems going the other way.

“It’s still not perfect just yet, but there are some encouraging signs.

“It’s all about minutes in legs, we got another 60 minutes into the lads today and I though that the fitness levels were looking good.

“ We looked sharp, we were really aggressive on the press and we played some good stuff as well.

“There are encouraging signs but we’re not going to get carried away, there is still more to come from us.

“You can’t get too high or too low, we weren’t very good in the first-half the other night and I thought that our response was excellent today.

“We can’t get too carried away, there is work to do. Was the shape enough and more what we wanted it to look like? Yes.

“Still, there is loads for us to work on and improve on, the main thing is that we got through it at a good intensity today and the players have got good minutes into their legs.”

Hinshelwood discussed the own goal conceded by Aguiar, and was particularly pleased with the manner of how his players responded after conceding.

“Hopefully we’ve got all of the mistakes out of the way now, we can only get better and hopefully a mistake like that, you learn from quickly.

“It’s definitely one for us to improve on, but I thought that the bravery that the players showed after that was tremendous.

“Rory’s got one and broke the line for Joe Felix just after that, it’s encouraging to watch and superb.

“There are some good signs in our play and in possession, they were looking fit and I was impressed with the out-of-possession stuff as well.

“There is plenty for us to work on, but a good day’s work.”