Rochdale v York City: Adam Hinshelwood wants Minstermen to turn style back on

Where Tuesday's hosts Rochdale are fighting to be in the play-offs, York can pretty much start planning for them, even with eight games to go.

All season long the Minstermen have been challenging for the Conference's automatic promotion spot but five defeats in 2025, including Saturday's at Braintree Town, have left them 14 points behind leaders Barnet.

Now they no longer have to worry about attacking the Bees, and with an 18-point cushion in the play-off spots, Hinshelwood wants York to get back to playing their football.

"Whether the pressure of chasing Barnet down was too much, I don't know," said Hinshelwood, who had planned to leave media duties to his assistant, Gary Elphick, until the weekend defeat.

"If we stumble into the play-offs, we're not going to give ourselves the best opportunity of doing well in them.

"For us to be successful in our last eight games we've got to have a real focus on what's served us well to get us into the position we're in.

"We've probably come away from our style a little bit because of the state of the pitches. We've got to stick to our style and if that means the odd bobbly pass that goes over our foot, we've got to take that chin.

"We've got to coach the team to play our style rather than putting the ball in for second balls, scrapping and fighting. We haven't really got the players to do that and I'm not comfortable seeing my team do that either.

"It's getting back to what we do well and having a bit more fight about them.

"There seems to be a bit of tension about the group and I've told them the last eight games we've got to unleash the shackles and go and play a bit more care-free."

Injuries are not an excuse either.

"Crookesy (Adam Crookes) won't be able to do Saturday-Tuesday just yet, especially after just coming back from injury, so he's the only one," said the manager.

"Junior (Luamba)'s had a bit of a knee issue but he's come through training so I'm hoping he'll be all right.

"Cam John's got a hernia but the rest will have done him good, so he'll be available to come back into the team. Dipo (Akinyemi)'s trained well and could be available for some minutes."