'That is how I want to play' - York City boss Neal Ardley admires Chesterfield's style after Spireites secure big win

Ardley, who was appointed manager last month after a poor start to the season under Michael Morton, has gone close to winning promotion from the National League twice with Notts County and Solihull Moors so he knows what it takes to be successful.

At the moment, York is in a transitional period but over time his aim is to build something that will get them moving up the table.

He explained: "I talked to Paul Cook before the game, it has taken him 18 months to get the Chesterfield team where he wants it. He said he actually enjoys watching them train now, and the lads lead in what they are doing, and you can see why they are where they are in the league.

"That is how I want to play, how Chesterfield play, with that sort of intensity, and the players have got to step up. If they don’t we will have to replace because we can’t be like that. We will do our best but it is not going to happen overnight.”

It was a tight first-half on Tuesday night, with the visitors starting better, but Chesterfield blew York away after the break.

Ardley said: “I thought we were very good in the first-half. They executed the game-plan.

"At half-time we talked about how they (Chesterfield) were going to change something. And they did – they pushed three up – we tried to give the information about what we needed to do but I don’t think we adapted to that quick enough in our back five and that has resulted in the chance for the first goal and they started to cause us problems.

"Once they score it becomes really hard because that settles them down, they haven’t got to chase it anymore and they can be patient.

"For the second goal, we have defended the cross well, he (Tom Naylor) has hit one – I don’t know whether it is a good goal or it isn’t, I couldn’t see where it went in. And then the third and fourth goals are mistakes and it makes the scoreline look worse than what it was.”

The result leaves York fifth from bottom, one point above the drop zone.

He added: "I can be angry at the boys but it is not going to get us anywhere. We have got to endure a bit of pain at the moment. We know where the squad is and what the problems are.”

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