Ollie Pearce’s second-half brace proved the difference for the Minstermen as a 2-0 victory at rock-bottom Ebbsfleet moved them above Forest Green and into second place ahead of Tuesday night’s showdown at pacesetters Barnet.
However, that is not to say City’s performance was not at times sluggish, and they could count themselves lucky not to have fallen behind on the stroke of half time, only for Josh Passley’s header to be ruled out for impeding goalkeeper Harrison Male.
Hinshelwood rolled the dice to bring on both Lenell John-Lewis and last week’s hat-trick hero Josh Stones early in the second half, before Ryan Fallowfield’s introduction with 15 minutes remaining pushed Cameron John further up the pitch to an instant reward.
“I don’t really know how to feel after that to be honest,” admitted the City boss.
“Obviously we want to play a certain style of football, and we definitely didn’t do that today, but ultimately, it’s about grinding out and picking up results.
“The lads that came on, I thought really changed the game for us. We could then play forward a bit more and the effort and the work rate that they put into the game was tremendous.”
Despite their lowly league position, Ebbsfleet gave a good account of themselves, and looked a world away from a side seven points adrift at the bottom of the table.
Alex Lankshear proved a threat on the left wing, Tom Dallison saw a shot cleared and Franklin Domi fizzed an effort from the edge of the box narrowly wide before Passley’s header was correctly ruled out after a lengthy discussion between referee Alan Dale and his linesman.
The disallowed goal though put a rocket up York, who never looked back after responding with the introductions of both Stones and John-Lewis early in the second half.
The former played in Pearce, who then converted from the spot after being upended in the box, before a change in formation saw Cameron John play in the striker to score his, and City’s, second with just under a quarter of an hour left to play.
Though Fleet had their moments, Harrison Male was left with barely a save to make, in no small part thanks to skipper Callum Howe, who Hinshelwood believes delivered “one of the biggest performances so far” of any of his players.
He continued: “I know that Ollie Pearce will probably get all the plaudits, but what a performance from our captain today. Everything that went in the box, he was there, and he was the real leader today.
“It was probably one of the biggest performances so far from a York City player. That’s how big the performance was from him today, and we needed him.
“Obviously the forwards will get the plaudits, but I’m really, really proud of our clean sheet record as well. I think that’s 15 now, so I’m really proud of that.
“We know that we create chances. We had a lot of players that were off the boil for whatever reason and to have that many off the boil and still get a 2-0 win, it’s testament to the squad.”
As for what caused his players to not be at their best for the opening hour, the City boss dismissed the idea that their upcoming clash at Barnet was in the back of his players’ minds.
“It’s definitely not come from us,” he insisted.
“We got a reality check not that long ago going to Boston and the team were fighting for their lives at the bottom. We probably played better on the day, especially the first half, against Boston than we did today.
“To be able to grind out results I think is massive for us and the squad was excellent, Lenny and Josh coming on gave us a real presence and gave us the edge.”
