FORMER Darlington manager Martin Gray says he is hoping to bring in up to three players before his first game as York City boss on Saturday.

Gray wishes to make immediate improvements to his new squad, but there has been no indication, at least publicly, that he will raid Quakers for his new recruits.

At his first press conference as the Minstermen manager, held yesterday afternoon having taken charge of training in the morning, Gray said some of the York players’ fitness was lacking and that he wished to strengthen in certain areas of the team.

York are seventh, 11 points behind top-two teams Harrogate Town and Salford City, and the former Darlington boss said: “There are some good players here and the position in the table is still healthy.

“I thought York were outstanding in the first half when I came here with Darlington in August and we could have been three or four down, but managed to stop the ball going into our net. They also had a great result at Salford and I think there’s a good strong nucleus to the squad, but there is room for improvement in certain areas that we’ve identified.

“One is we’ve got to improve the fitness levels in the building. Some players were blowing in our first training session and they shouldn’t have been doing.

“We’re also looking at certain positions that need strengthening and we’ll be working hard to get one, two or three players in before the weekend. I know this league and the one above very well and we’re looking to get the right faces in to move the club forward again.

“I think we need an injection of energy so I can put my stamp on things. But there are 90 points still to play for, which is a lot to go at.

“We’ve got milestones in terms of where we want to be at the end of October and at the start of the new year. We want to be in the play-offs then and challenging for promotion.

“The club can’t just be in the mix - we’ve got to get promotion.”