Scott Lindsey felt the decision to stick with York’s somewhat unusual kick-off routine was fully justified after Ollie Pearce scored the fastest ever goal in the first round of the FA Cup against Northampton.

Pearce’s lightening-quick opener was clocked at 9.5 seconds after Cobblers failed to deal with a huge up and under straight from kick-off. Pearce quickly doubled his tally before goals from Alex Hunt and Josh Stones saw York cruise into round two.

“It was obviously a great start,” said Lindsey. “Certain people have criticised that kick-off a few times but it’s hard to defend. We’ve kept doing it because we felt we would get something from it.

“We played so well, we were clean with the ball and we were defensively strong. A lot of work went into this game after a poor performance last week and I’m really pleased for the players.

“It’s always good to score early. A big percentage of teams win after scoring first and then we got the second one quickly. They’re not a high-scoring team and our defensive shape was class, we’ve done a lot of work on that and we looked hard to break down, but to score four goals against a side that doesn’t concede too many, I’m delighted.

“It’s a great day and I really enjoyed it. We feel a good cup run would enhance our season and our league form and it can only be a good thing for the supporters and the club and we want to get to the third round and get a big game.”