TACKLING the cracks has topped York City’s week without a friendly fixture.

Manager Gary Mills revealed how this week’s training schedule was headed by an in-depth scrutiny of the Minstermen’s friendly outings so far.

The prime objective was being alive and kicking for the Blue Square Bet Premier start at Ebbsfleet on Saturday, August 13.

Said Mills: “We have had a lot of games in a short space of time, so this week we have gone through all the games, talked about them and then gone through them on the training field.

“It’s helped us to tweak the little things that are not right.”

The City manager declared it would have been “fantasy” to expect that all the matches would have gone perfectly with City notching heavy victories in every encounter.

“This is a brand new squad and there’s been a lot of changes, but they’ve all worked very hard.

“The games have been good in that we have come up against teams who have played well against us and that’s shown us what is wrong and what is right.

“You have got to be able to se the things that are wrong because then you can try to put them right like we have talked about this week,” said Mills.

“As a manager if everything went perfectly from day one and you win three, four, five-nil every game you play, sometimes it hides over the cracks.

“You have got to have cracks so that you can put them right by August 13 and hopefully by then there’ll be no cracks at all.”

For Mills the only blight on the pre-season playing programme, which resumes against Hartlepool at Bootham Crescent on Saturday, has been the ankle injury suffered by midfielder David McDermott at Garforth just over two weeks ago.

However, McDermott has started some light running and could be back in contention over the next few days.

“I have been delighted with the progress we have made in the pre-season,” said the City chief.

“Tomorrow we will have been back four weeks and, apart from the injury (to McDermott), I honestly feel that if I had a crystal ball to plan it, I don’t think I could have planned for anything better. That’s how good the pre-season has gone.”