ADAM HINSHELWOOD labelled Callum Howe as York City’s ‘warrior’ after a brilliant display from the centre-back earned the Minstermen a 3-0 win over Southend United.

Howe played his part both defensively and offensively after his header from Dan Batty’s corner rattled the crossbar and deflected into Dipo Akinyemi’s path, with the substitute lashing home a thunderous effort.

Just three minutes later, Howe opened his account for the season with a goal of his own, meeting another Batty cross and this time powering his header past Southend’s Collin Andeng Ndi.

It was his centre-back partner Malachi Fagan-Walcott who played a large part in David Ajiboye’s goal for the afternoon, with Hinshelwood effusive about the display of the York captain, as York scored from three corners.

“He’s such a threat in both boxes,” Hinshelwood praised.

“His defensive clearances and headers today were massive, if only he could have got his head on one last week, but it wasn’t to be.

“He’s been immense for us, we ask Cal to play in a certain style that probably is a bit unorthodox for him.

“He has the ball at his feet quite a lot and does play a lot of passes back to Harrison, but he’s really adapting to that side of his game and you need your warriors in the team, that’s what makes a good team.

“He’s certainly our warrior at the back.

“We’d done the sort of set-piece game in pre-season and scored a few times after it.

“I know that we scored against these with the ball going into their box when Len [Lenell John-Lewis] scored at their place, we worked on it again yesterday and have scored a few goals.

“Maybe we’ve got to stop faffing about with the short corners and put it in there, and do the set-piece game a few more times on a Friday.

“Dipo’s finish was excellent, it comes off of the bar from Callum Howe’s header and obviously Howe’s scored with his header.

“It’s very basic, but if we have the runs, put the ball in the right area and go and attack it then sometimes the game can be as simple as that.”

In Hinshelwood’s general assessment of the match, he admitted that he was ‘really pleased’ by how his team dominated play at times against a solid Southend side.

Hinshelwood was also impressed by the character his side showed to not let their heads drop after Tyrese Sinclair squandered two big opportunities for the Minstermen.

The City boss added: “I think that they are a really good side and in large parts we dominated today’s game.

“I’m really pleased, I think it makes last week’s result a good point now on the road, we were obviously really disappointed not to hang on to all three points but the players responded brilliantly today.

“It’s full credit to the players, I said that to them at half-time, they’ve probably done enough to be leading by a good couple of goals and it’s not happened.

“We could have been that team where it could have been ‘if only we took those chances’ or ‘if only we put them away’, or are we going to be a team that steps on and goes up a level.

“I think we’ve done that, the substitutions that we can make as well made a massive difference.”

Three points for York, and points being dropped for Barnet and Forest Green Rovers, means that City will be top of the National League table at Christmas.

For context, of the last ten seasons in the fifth tier, eight of those ten teams have gone on to gain promotion after leading the way at Christmas.

However, the hard work doesn’t stop for the Minstermen,  with the players set to train on Christmas Day ahead of their Boxing Day showdown at Oldham Athletic (5.30pm).

“Wow!” Hinshelwood laughed, reacting to York’s return to the summit. “We’ll all enjoy our Christmas when we get the lads in, we want to prepare properly.

“With the game being at half five, it’s a long time to go from Christmas Eve to a half five kick-off without any preparation before it.

“They’re ultra professional, they’ve fully backed that decision and we want to prepare properly for a massive game on Boxing Day.

“We want to go into the New Year staying top of the league, that’s going to be a real challenge in itself.”