Mansfield Town v York City: Minstermen have firepower to shoot up the table, says Jackie McNamara

The Minstermen lost the first seven games of McNamara’s reign prior to a 2-1 home triumph over Morecambe in their last outing on the Saturday before Christmas.

But third-bottom York scored in all but one of those fixtures and the former Celtic captain believes he has the firepower amongst his ranks to shoot the club up the table.

Under previous manager Russ Wilcox, City won 4-1 at Field Mill in March despite playing with 10 men for an hour and McNamara is convinced this season’s side are capable of a similar scoreline.

“I thought we could have got a third or fourth goal against Morecambe and I can see that coming,” McNamara declared. “We’re just working on the players’ confidence so they believe they can do it, because they can hurt teams.

“We saw that against Morecambe, whether it’s through people breaking forward from midfield or working off Vadaine Oliver.”

Nine-goal Oliver will be returning to Mansfield, where he spent last season on loan, but the visitors will still be without Michael Coulson (groin), Jake Hyde (groin), Emile Sinclair (knee), Stefan O’Connor (hamstring) and Reece Thompson (illness)

McNamara, meanwhile, admitted that referee Seb Stockbridge had no option but to postpone the Boxing Day encounter with Northampton in flood-hit York.

“It would have been farcical trying to play a game on that pitch,” the former Scotland international explained.

“There were also safety concerns because the roads in to the city were horrendous, too.”