Home comforts for Wilcox

Russ Wilcox celebrated York's first home victory of the season by praising his team's commitment following a 1-0 win Accrington.

The Minstermen went down to 10 men just past the hour mark when on-loan Middlesbrough teenager Brad Halliday received his marching orders for an ugly two-footed lunge on Stanley defender Tom Aldred. But York hung on for victory after centre-back Keith Lowe had claimed his fifth goal of the season with a 35th-minute header. The triumph also meant the hosts avoided equalling a club record 14th match without a win at Bootham Crescent, which was set back in 1981/82. Boss Wilcox said: "I am absolutely delighted to get that monkey off our back. We also did it with a clean sheet and our fans should be proud of the players for their endeavour, commitment, attitude and application. "To play with 10 men for more than 35 minutes against a team that have just taken four points from six against Portsmouth and Wycombe means this win is a great victory. "We talked about the importance of getting a clean sheet at half-time and we did that by having two disciplined banks of four and kept changing the one up through the middle to keep everybody fresh after the sending-off. "We managed the game quite well after Brad's red card and our keeper only had to make a couple of basic saves and deal with a few other balls into the box." Wilcox had no argument with Halliday's dismissal, and said: "It was only down to enthusiasm but, in the modern era, that's a red card." The visitors had great chances to go in front during the first half but Rob Atkinson and Tom Aldred both headed over from Lee Molyneux free kicks. Piero Mingoia and Matt Crooks also shot weakly at Alex Cisak after charging clear on goal. But York made the breakthrough when Lowe headed in from a left-wing Michael Coulson free-kick to the far post. After Halliday was dismissed on 61 minutes, the Minstermen adapted well although Molyneux's late 25-yard strike did hit the outside of an upright. Away boss Johnn Coleman confessed his side were not up to scratch at both ends of the pitch. "They have made two good chances and our keeper has made two good saves but we have gifted them a goal from a set-play," he said. "This is the best defence I have worked with, and I have worked with some good ones, but we are conceding some silly goals. We are defending well for large periods but then we can switch off for one moment and we are being punished. "We are also not taking our chances and we are too inconsistent. We have got to get the right formula and ingredients to win games."