Signed from non-league football’s South Coast conveyor belt. Ollie Pearce has become one of the most lethal strikers at the National League level. With 29 goals and 9 assists in 37 appearances this season, the 30-year-old is the engine driving York City’s push back into the Football League.
From Worthing to the verge of the Football League
When York City brought Ollie Pearce to the LNER Community Stadium from Worthing in the summer of 2024. Supporters unfamiliar with non-league football’s lower reaches might have been forgiven for raising an eyebrow. But those who had tracked Pearce’s extraordinary output on England’s South Coast knew exactly what they were getting.
At Worthing, Pearce spent six prolific years, finishing with 155 goals in 245 appearances. An almost incomprehensible return in a career that had previously seen him deliver at Bognor Regis Town. The 2023-24 campaign alone brought 46 goals in 51 appearances across all competitions, earning him the National League South golden boot by a considerable margin.
York moved quickly and decisively. They knew that at 29, Pearce was entering his peak years as a centre-forward, and that the step up to the National League’s fifth tier would not diminish him. Twelve months on, that judgement has been vindicated emphatically.
The numbers that tell the story
In 37 National League appearances during 2025-26, Pearce has scored 29 goals and added 9 assists. A combined goal involvement of 38 in the league alone. That translates to a goal every 108 minutes of league football, an elite return at any level.
| Ollie Pearce — 2025-26 Season Stats (National League) Appearances: 37 Goals: 29 Assists: 9 Goal involvement: 38 Minutes per goal: ~108 Hat-tricks: 1 (5 goals vs Braintree, Jan 24) Yellow cards: 4 Notable: Player of the Month — November 2025 & January 2026 |
Particularly notable is his consistency across the campaign. Pearce has not gone more than three consecutive games without a goal contribution all season. Even in York’s only extended rough patch — a brief wobble in early March that saw a 3-2 defeat at Boreham Wood — Pearce was on the scoresheet.
His hat-trick in the 5-0 destruction of Braintree Town in January was a statement of intent from a striker who had already won Player of the Month in November. He won it again in January, becoming just the second York City player in recent memory to win the National League’s individual award twice in the same season.
The perfect fit for Stuart Maynard’s system
Manager Stuart Maynard’s system demands a striker who can lead the line with physicality, make intelligent runs behind a defensive line, and contribute to York’s high-press. Pearce delivers on all fronts. His movement is clever rather than explosive — he reads the game exceptionally well and times his runs to arrive at the right moment rather than gambling early.
His partnership with wide players and the supporting midfield runners behind him has been a hallmark of York’s season. Nine assists from a centre-forward in a single league campaign underlines that Pearce is far more than a penalty-box poacher — he is a creative threat who links play and creates space for teammates.
Eyes on the Football League golden boot
With seven games remaining and 29 league goals to his name. Pearce is well on course to challenge for the National League’s top scorer award outright. Should York seal promotion — and with an 8-point lead and 86 points banked. That now looks a matter of when rather than if — Pearce will head into League Two next season as one of non-league football’s most coveted assets.
His current contract at York runs until the end of June 2026. What happens next will be one of the summer’s most interesting sub-plots in the lower divisions. For now, Pearce’s focus is singular: goals, points, and a return to the
