The halfway point of the Football League season is looming and for the first game of the Christmas holidays Stanley are on the road to York.

The Reds picked up a point from last weekend’s game with league leaders Wycombe but are in good spirits against a City side struggling for form.

Stanley’s last two trips to Bootham Crescent have been key for gathering points in a battle at the bottom but now the aim is to add to the tally and cut the gap to the play-off places.

Manager John Coleman will again be without goalkeeper Jack Rose, who is ruled out with a hip injury.

“It’s looking like Jack’s going to be out for a couple of weeks,” he said. “That’s something that we’ll just have to deal with. I thought Luke Simpson acquitted himself quite well on Saturday. It was a difficult game to come into and conceding early wouldn’t have done his confidence any good but he made a great save in the second half and I think the more games he plays then the better he’ll get.”

Adam Buxton is the only other absentee, with Sean Maguire back in the squad after extending his loan from West Ham.

The Minstermen have spent eight of the last 10 seasons in the Conference and two seasons in League Two.

They were promoted from the Conference in the 2011/12 season after finishing in 4^th place in the table. They were promoted after defeating Luton Town 2-1 in the play-off final at Wembley. Ashley Chambers and Matty Blair scored for the Minstermen, with Andre Gray scoring for Luton.

They have then spent the last two seasons in League Two and finished last season in 7^th place and were defeated 1-0 on aggregate in the play-off semi-final by Fleetwood Town.

Russ Wilcox

50 year old Wilcox is in his second managerial role after taking over at the Minstermen in October this year. He previously had a spell as Scunthorpe United manager between November 2013 and October 2014. He also had a spell as caretaker manager of Scunthorpe in 2004.

Prior to being a manager Wilcox had a successful playing career making over 500 appearances for a number of clubs, including Northampton Town, Hull City, Doncaster Rovers and Scunthorpe United

Luke Summerfield

27 year old Summerfield signed for the club in the summer from Shrewsbury Town and has so far made 15 appearances and scored one goal.

Summerfield started his career at Plymouth Argyle and made 79 appearances and scored four goals for the club between 2005 and 2011. During his time at Argyle he had spells on loan at Bournemouth and Leyton Orient where he made eight appearances and 14 appearances for the two clubs. He then signed for Cheltenham Town and made 41 appearances and scored four goals in the 2011/12 season before signing for Shrewsbury. During his two years at Shrewsbury, Summerfield made 64 appearances and scored three goals before moving to the Minstermen in the summer.

The two sides have met on 28 occasions at York, with Stanley winning seven, drawing eight and losing 13 of these matches.

The last meeting between the clubs was last season and ended in a 1-1 draw. Michael Coulson scored a penalty for York with Shay McCartan scoring a last minute equaliser for Stanley.

Stanley will be looking for a repeat of the 2011 meeting which saw them win 3-1 thanks to Ian Craney, Terry Gornell and Phil Edwards.

Stanley have gone two games without a win following the FA Cup defeat at Yeovil and Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Wycombe Wanderers.

The Reds are eleventh in the League Two table and are four points behind Newport who sit in the final play-off place.

The Minstermen have had a poor season so far, currently sitting in 22^nd place in the League Two table with 20 points from 21 games. They are currently winless at home, having drawn six and lost four of their 10 home matches so far this season.

In their last match they drew 2-2 away at Bury with Andrew Tutte and Daniel Nardiello putting Bury 2-0 up. Jake Hyde and Luke Summerfield recued a point for the Minstermen.

Stanley

James Gray 5
Kal Naismith 4
Luke Joyce 4
Shay McCartan 4
Rob Atkinson 4
John O’Sullivan 4
Sean Maguire 4
Marcus Carver 3
Piero Mingoia 3

York

Jake Hyde 6
Diego Di Girolamo 4
Wes Fletcher 4
Keith Lowe 4

Darren Bond (Lancashire)

Mr Bond is an up and coming official in his third season as a Football League referee.

His last Stanley game was the 3-0 defeat at Bury last August.

This season: 20 games, 52 yellow cards, 2 red cards

The Ground

City have played at Bootham Crescent since 1932, after having previously played at Fulfordgate. The current capacity of Bootham Crescent is 7,872 and the clubs record attendance is 28,123, which was set against Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup in 1938.

For more information on York City, why not visit their official website www.yorkcityfootballclub.co.uk or their Twitter feed @YorkCityFC

Players to have appeared for both clubs include Wes Fletcher and Alex Cisak. Fletcher made 10 appearances and scored two goals for Stanley in a loan spell from Burnley in 2011 and has so far made 47 appearances and scored 13 goals for the Minstermen since signing for them in 2013.

Alex Cisak has also appeared for both clubs. He played for Stanley between 2010 and 2011 and made 21 appearances for the club. He is currently on loan at the Minstermen from Burnley and has so far made seven appearances.