York City 2 Lincoln City 1: Substitute Connolly hands Minstermen semi-final advantage

The second installment of a huge midweek double-header at Bootham Crescent takes place in six days’ time when the hosts welcome Southport in a game of monumental importance to the club’s National League survival mission.

By way of a ‘warm-up’, York’s intoxicating efforts last night in procuring Lincoln City’s underdog card to secure a 2-1 FA Trophy semi-final first-leg advantage to take to Sincil Bank on Saturday should serve as an exhilarating tonic.

York’s own double quest may lack the grandeur of their dual bid for FA Trophy and promotion glory under Gary Mills five years ago – and that currently seeking to be reprised by the Red Imps – but it is no less important. League safety and a day out at Wembley is Mills’s mission this time around and City took a positive step towards a return to the home of football – even if it looked somewhat unlikely at the interval.

Second-best in a tame first half in which they deservedly trailed to Lee Angol’s 14th-minute penalty, York delivered a remarkable second-half transformation against the team who everyone in non-league circles has been talking about.

It was inspired by the half-time introduction of Aidan Connolly, who unwittingly diverted fellow replacement Adriano Moke’s shot into the net on 69 minutes to give York a narrow first-leg advantage.

It ensured that the history-making Red Imps – fresh from their exploits in becoming the first non-league side to make it to the cup quarter-finals in 103 years – were handed a taste of their own medicine en route to just their third defeat in 18 matches so far in 2017. After turning over Burnley, Brighton and Ipswich, Lincoln were this time on the receiving end in marked contrast to late autumn.

Then, Danny Cowley’s troops eased to a 4-1 league victory over a bereft-looking York, but thankfully things have changed a bit since with Mills’s side looking a far more robust and cohesive unit with backbone.

On the evidence of last night – more especially in the second half – it was impossible to argue with Mills’s assertion that his players are giving everything in their bid to end a fraught season on a high note.

Character was displayed in abundance, with some much-needed second-half offensive assertion culminating in Vadaine Oliver heading York level on 53 minutes.

Connolly fortuitously added a second. But York deserved their break and it was then left to Kyle Letheren and his defensive cohorts to somehow keep Lincoln out at the other end after a barnstorming late finish.

After his side’s considerable mental and physical exertions at Arsenal, Red Imps manager Danny Cowley refreshed his side with nine changes and how Mills must have looked on with envy at depth of City’s squad.

While Lincoln looked full of invention, quick thought, confidence and poise, even accounting for their raft of changes, York looked laboured and disjointed in the opening 45 minutes.

Given all that, the main plus point of the first half represented a scoreline which was not too damaging in the circumstances.

The visitors’ sole reward arrived from the spot when Angol went down under the clumsy challenge of Hamza Bencherif before coolly sending Letheran the wrong way.

It could have got worse for York shortly before the break when Jamie McCombe saw his header flash just over while the alert Letheran also fielded decent efforts from Joe Ward and Adam Marriott.

At the other end, York palpably lacked attacking wit and width with the interval arriving at a key juncture. Connolly’s introduction also proved extremely timely and eight minutes in, Oliver’s flicked back-header restored parity following Amari Morgan-Smith’s centre.

Better was to come for the hosts when Connolly diverted Oliver’s cross past the helpless Etheridge with howls for a home penalty then rebuffed when Shaun Rooney went down in the box.

Letheran kept out Angol’s header and beat away Ward’s drive, while the home goal somehow surviving a frenzied goalmouth scramble following substitute Matt Rhead’s header.

York City: Letheren; Rooney, Bencherif, Newton; Holmes, Heslop, Fenwick (Connolly 45), Whittle (Moke 65); Oliver, Parkin. Morgan-Smith. Unused substitutes: Simpson, Walton, Fielding.

Lincoln City: Etheridge; Wood, McCombe (Waterfall 79), Howe, Habergham; Angol, Knott (Power 72), Whitehouse, Marriott (Rhead 72); Ginnelly, Ward. Unused substitutes: Muldoon, Hawkridge.

Referee: A Backhouse (Cumbria).