Farsley Celtic produced an encouraging performance at The Citadel on Tuesday evening in a 1-2 defeat to York City

The match was the penultimate one of pre-season before the launch of the National League North 2023/24 season and the final one at The Citadel until the Celts host Chorley on Saturday 12 August.

Farsley got off to the perfect start when on thirteen minutes young prospect Joao Silva fired the ball home from outside the area with a left-footed strike to record his second goal of the pre-season campaign, adding to his strike at Brighouse.

The visitors were level thirteen minutes later when a deflection gave Maz Kouhyar a golden chance to equalise from just a few yards out.

Farsley came close to nudging themselves back in front on the half-hour mark when player/head-coach Clayton Donaldson raced through on goal before firing his effort wide of the post.

Donaldson’s side then nearly scored through Conor Branson after he met a pin-point delivery from George Smith, however his header was wide of the mark.

The Celts continued to have the better of the chances and just three minutes before the interval, some strong hold-up play from Darren Stephenson led to Donaldson striking from the edge of the box, forcing a superb, diving save from the York goalkeeper.

The second half was a quieter affair, however Farsley did have the ball in the back of the net on the hour mark when Ben Atkinson finished off a lovely team move involving Smith and Ryan Watson.

With twenty minutes to go, York were given the chance to go in front from an interesting penalty decision where Jack Leake was judged to have fouled John-Lewis inside the area, which the former converted to make it 2-1.

Chances were then few and far for both sides as the National League side went on to see out a 2-1 victory at The Citadel.

Up next for Farsley, it’s the Leeds derby where the Celts travel to Nethermoor Park to face Gusieley AFC in the final match of pre-season before the opening day away at Rushall Olympic on Saturday 5 August.