York City boss Adam Hinshelwood frustrated after Minstermen's no show at National League title rivals Barnet

The Minstermen now sit seven points adrift of the leaders after coming a distant second-best in a 3-1 defeat on Tuesday night.

They have two games in hand, but Hinshelwood must now gather his players and get them ready for Saturday’s derby visit from FC Halifax Town who themselves are gunning for promotion.

But the York boss was left far from happy at his players’ efforts at The Hive Stadium and expects better at the LNER Community Stadium this weekend.

“We were so poor, we lost the first battle, lost the first header, lost the second challenge, lost the third one at times,” said a frustrated Hinshelwood.

“We weren't brave enough to play our football, we got pressed really well and just couldn’t live with their intensity.

“I have to give full credit to the opposition because they were tremendous and we were way off it, miles away.”

Adebola Oluwo opened the scoring for the Bees in the 16th minute, with Lee Ndlovu putting the hosts further ahead in the 51st minute.

Barnet captain Anthony Hartigan added another six minutes later from a free-kick, with Malachi Fagan-Walcott scoring a consolation goal for York in added time.

Hinshelwood said he expected to find out a lot about his players as a result of their collective no-show in such a key game.

“If you don’t do the basics in terms of competing, you’re going to struggle,” he added. “All over the pitch we were miles away from competing, whatever the reason.

“Whether the occasion was too much for some of us, or we’re not used to playing in these kinds of games and that intensity, I don’t know. I don’t think there is one unit or one player that comes out of that game with any credit. It was a really big game - first against second - and we simply haven’t turned up.

“We’re going to analyse this and we’ve got to learn from it. We’ll find out a lot about our players after this - we’ve got to be better. We want that next game to come quickly and we have to give a better account of ourselves.”