ADAM HINSHELWOOD hopes that the appointment of Clayton Donaldson as Head of Development can be the first steps in creating a long-term pathway into the first-team.

York City legend Donaldson returned to the club last week in a new role as Head of Development, where he will oversee the newly-created development side.

Having made over 110 appearances for York and scoring over 50 goals, Donaldson returns to City with a welcome experience of the football club, as well as managerial history with Farsley Celtic in the National League North.

Hinshelwood believes that Donaldson will play a huge part in establishing a pathway into the first-team, with the manager keen to bring through more homegrown talent to City.

“I was happy with it until he started getting my name wrong on live TV that I got told all about! I was quite happy about it!” Hinshelwood joked to the Press.

“But no, he’s a good guy and we want to get a few more younger players in and around the first-team squad.

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“With Clayton coming in, it should really help us do that.

“We do see it as a long-term plan, we want to get local, young and talented players into the football club and coming through into our first-team.

“We feel that by having this development pathway, this is the way forward that we can do it as a club.

“It’s not something that happens overnight, but we’ve got to build the foundations and I think that we are starting to do that.

“Hopefully we can pick up the rewards for it in the years to come.”

Hinshelwood has already begun to consider which players could make up Donaldson’s development squad, with a member of the City academy recently catching his eye.

Ben Farrar, a striker playing under Tim Ryan, has impressed so far this season after notching seven goals in eight matches for the York under-18’s.

Hinshelwood has high hopes of Farrar, and has issued an incentive for the youngster to improve upon if he wishes to move up within the club.

“We like Ben, he’s a really talented player.

“He’s got a turn of pace, a nice left foot and he’s someone that we have got high hopes for.

“He is someone that we definitely feel can come into that development programme and be a real player for us.

“ He’s probably got to develop a little bit in terms of physically, but when he does that he can be a very talented and exciting player.

“He is one that we are keeping a very close eye on for sure.”

Fellow youngster Bill Marshall and Leon Gibson-Booth are also considered potential options for a future development side, having earned senior minutes with Ossett Untied and Morpeth Town this season.

Hinshelwood has been happy with their development, and hopes that they can push to be a part of the York first-team in January, when their loans at Morpeth expire.

He continued: “They are doing really well.

“I think we’ve done really well with them, Macca [Tony McMahon, Director of Football] has done really well with the loans, we didn’t want to put them too high so that they could find their feet in men’s football and then we upped their standards a little bit.

“They seem to be coping with it well and are having an impact, which is really important.

“We’re really happy with the development of both players and they are developing really nicely.

“They train with us regularly as well and we can see that development first hand.

“We’re hoping that when they come back to us in January time, they will be a lot closer to getting minutes with us.”