YORK City’s new striker Fraser Murdoch reckons he has the perfect National League mentor at Bootham Crescent in Richard Brodie.

Murdoch, 21, replaced Brodie after 65 minutes during last weekend’s 2-0 defeat at Barrow to make his professional debut, but believes he can gain invaluable non-League knowledge from City’s five-goal leading marksman.

Brodie has netted more than 100 times in the Conference and fellow target-man Murdoch reasoned: “It’s good for me to see Brodie play.

“I can learn off him because he’s got some good experience of playing at this level for a long time.”

Despite featuring for Crewe’s first team at the age of 17 during pre-season friendlies in 2013, Murdoch never played in a competitive senior fixture for the Gresty Road club so, while the Barrow loss will never be a club highlight for the Minstermen, it was a memorable occasion for the new forward, who admitted: “It’s never going to be easy coming in when the side have lost a few games, but it was a dream come true to make my debut.

“At Crewe, I had injuries that kept me out for two-and-a-half years, so I didn’t get the chance to get into the first team.

“It was just disappointing we conceded two goals from set-pieces, because you need to concentrate at those situations.”

On the problems that have ravaged Murdoch’s fledgling career, he revealed: “I had a cruciate ligament injury and, because I’d had a hamstring graft, I kept pulling that the following year, so it’s been stop-start, but I’m finally getting back now.”

City’s latest recruit, nevertheless, confessed that he is not fully fit, with the two-goal reserve run-out against Chesterfield, that landed him a deal last week, representing his first action for a couple of months.

“I got 75 minutes (against Chesterfield), but I’d not played since pre-season at Burnley, so I was struggling towards the end,” Murdoch explained.

“I was happy with my two goals, though, because that’s what you need as a striker and I will try and push myself to get my fitness back.”

Ahead of this weekend’s home match with Aldershot, Murdoch went on to stress that the team must avoid the deflation he sensed at Barrow if they go behind in the game.

“As soon as we went a goal down, you saw the lads’ heads go down, but you have to put that to one side and keep looking to push for a goal, because you never know what will happen if you get one back,” he pointed out.

Murdoch also insisted City must start to shoot on sight.

Barrow was the fourth consecutive game in which Jackie McNamara’s side have failed to net, with full-back Shaun Rooney responsible for half of the four shots on target despite being substituted after 52 minutes.

Two games previously, meanwhile, the Minstermen drew 0-0 at home to ten-man Tranmere without testing the opposition keeper once and Murdoch ventured: “We need to take our chances in the final third.

“We didn’t have too many on target (at Barrow) and have got to be more productive.”