Michael Morton named as permanent manager at National League outfit York City

Morton was put in charge of the Minstermen in January following a poor run of form and the club managed to retain their divisional status at the end of the season - finishing three points clear of the relegation zone.

On leading his hometown club on a permanent basis, Morton said: “I think it’s going to be a good challenge.

“Nothing really changes in terms of how we finished the season, I think it’s all of us moving in the right direction and trying to do the right things for the club.

“It’s a real honour for myself to keep managing the club and keep trying to move it forward.

“It’s not going to be an easy challenge because there’s still a lot of stuff that we need to put into place, but everybody behind the scenes is working hard to put these foundations in place and to help the team be successful.

“I’m really looking forward to it.”

Meanwhile, Morton has pledged to build a team in his own image and modify their style of play.

He added: “The biggest thing you’ll see is a different style of play, but ultimately we won’t move away from the main objective of winning the games.

“We can go and play some really good football and lose games, so what we need to do is get that balance right of playing the right brand of football while achieving three points.

“I’ve put a recruitment plan together for the club, we’ve been working hard to see which calibre of players we can bring in. We know that we haven’t got a massive budget so we need to be a bit smarter in terms of what kind of players we can bring in.

“I’ve given them a style of player that we want, and it’s just up to us now to get four or five of them across the line to help the team that we’ve currently got.”

Former Bradford City, Sheffield United and Middlesbrough defender Tony McMahon will also remain at the club as Morton’s assistant manager and Joe Stead will continue in his role as goalkeeping coach.