York City manager Adam Hinshelwood delighted to get the bravery he asked for in 4-0 win over Rochdale

Perhaps York's defeat at Braintree Town, their second in a run of dour points from as many games, really did free York up, as their manager had said it could.

York have conceded the title to Barnet and with their play-off place all but guaranteed, were able to thrash a Rochdale side who would love to be in that position 4-0.

The game featured an outstanding goal from Ollie Pearce, who helped himself to a tap-in too, and two brilliantly-threaded assists, one for Pearce and one for substitute Dipo Akinyemi, his second of the game. Ryan Fallowfield even helped himself to a first goal of the season, joining Lewis Richardson on the scoresheet.

"We had a bit of a meeting and just said we couldn’t carry on playing how we were in terms of not everyone having the ball, not having that bravery, not just in possession but without the ball as well, going one-on-one on the front foot, wanting to press," said Hinshelwood, whose side are now 20 points clear of Dale, in the final play-off spot.

"We saw that tonight, everyone wanted the ball, there was bravery. That's us at our best.

"That's what we've got to find now for the last seven games. We'd come away from it in recent weeks.

"Maybe the pitches weren't the best, this was the best one we'd played on for a while.

"These results don't happen in football, it's a tough place to come and they were on form, they've got good players. We wanted to bounce back in style with a big performance.

"It was a great night for everybody. The supporters sang from start to finish."

And Hinshelwood was pleased at how his substitutes kept up the intensity Pearce and co started.

"If I was a defender I wouldn't want to see Dips (Akinyemi) and Junior (Luamba) coming on after 60 minutes," he said.

"You want them to have an impact and Dips is back ahead of schedule, we weren't expecting to see him again this season, so that should give him a lot of confidence and given us some real selection problems.

"Ryan Fallowfield was excellent at right-back, on the front foot, Cam John had one of his best games. Maybe I should tell him he's playing Rochdale (his former club) every week.

"Marv (Armstrong) and Joe (Felix), the energy they bring is brilliant. After watching them play I knew we'd have to press them and they gave us that energy.

"There's a real good vibe and we want to take that into Saturday."