Assistant manager Lee Nogan scored his second goal of the season to earn all three points for York City in an entertaining match at Bootham Crescent.
The win sees City maintain their promising 100 per cent record in the League.
The Minstermen opened their home campaign against highly-rated Northampton Town. Making his debut for York was striker Liam George who received his international clearance late in the week.
Northampton Town arrived at Bootham Crescent hoping to reverse their opening day defeat at home to Torquay.
The Cobblers showed one change from the team that beat First Division Norwich City midweek in the Carling Cup, Chris Hargreaves coming in for the injured Martin Reeves.
It was the visitors who showed the early promise with Marc Richards going close twice within the first ten minutes.
Both chances were provided by Martin Smith on the left. The second chance in the tenth minute was probably the easier of the two with Richards volleying over from six yards.
York had their first real opportunity of the match in the 20th minute with lively debutante George putting Lee Bullock through on goal. His resulting shot was saved by goalkeeper Glyn Thompson.
The game came to life with two minutes left of the first half. Brilliant play by Mitch Ward on the right saw him beat two defenders before crossing low into the six-yard box for Nogan to stroke home the first goal for City.
Northampton could have equalised straight from the restart when Josh Low was put through, but brilliant defending by Dave Merris caused the record signing to hesitate allowing City keeper Mark Ovendale to collect the ball.
The second half saw a lively Northampton side looking for an instant reply and City goalkeeper Ovendale had to make three excellent saves early on.
The heat and excitement of the game then took its toll as the pace slowed right down.
The final excitement was left until the last five minutes of the game when both teams had great scoring chances.
The first of those chances fell to City in the 89th minute when a speculative cross-cum-shot from Darren Edmondson was nearly headed home by Bullock.
In the final minute of stoppage time Smith nearly earned a much-deserved point for the Cobblers when his excellent volley was saved by man-of-the-match Ovendale.