National League North '“ York City boss Collins looking for positive reaction against rivals Bradford Park Avenue

Park Avenue inflicted a first defeat of the season on leaders Chorley last weekend, and came back from 2-0 down to claim a draw against Darlington in midweek which saw them move within three points of the top.

York, meanwhile, suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time this season, slipping down to 12th as a result.

Collins made no attempt to hide his disappointment with his side’s results, but said they haven’t affected his belief in his team to get a win this weekend.

“We’d gone one defeat in 11, 12 games and now obviously we’ve had two defeats on the bounce, which is hard to take.

“But we’ve got to go out there tomorrow and try and get a good result again. We’re more than capable of doing that if we play to our maximum, and we want to set out to go and win the game.”

York won both games against Park Avenue last season, including a 5-0 victory at the Horsfall Stadium, but this year it is the away side who are firmly in the ascendancy.

“They’ve had a good start to the season,” Collins added. “They’ve done well so far. Mark [Bower] has done a good job so we know it’s not going to be easy.

“They’ll be coming to us full of confidence. We were a really confident team up until having a couple of defeats but we’ve just got to bounce back.”

Collins does have the luxury of a full squad of players to choose from, with no fresh injury concerns despite the jam-packed schedule.

Park Avenue defender Danny Lowe was taken off early on against Darlington and could be a doubt, but midfielder Ben McKenna staked his claim for a start with an impressive showing from the bench.

Elsewhere, Guiseley travel to Darlington looking to bounce back from a disappointing 3-1 defeat at home to Blyth Spartans which saw them drop into the bottom half.

One point from their last two means Guiseley go into the weekend level on points with the Quakers, who threw away an early two-goal lead against Park Avenue on Tuesday.

Guiseley’s defeat annoyed manager Russ O’Neill, who said he was “bitterly disappointed with the result and the performance” as they were soundly beaten.

“Hopefully we can put it right on Saturday,” he said. “We’ll see on Saturday if we’ve learned from it or not.”