National League: York City boss Gary Mills writes off '˜bad day at the office'

The Minstermen rang in the new year with a 1-0 home defeat to North Ferriby to slide back to the foot of the table.

Since then, York have lost just three times in 14 league outings and booked a trip to Wembley in the FA Trophy final. Victory against Bromley on Tuesday would have taken City out of the bottom four but Mills’s side lost 2-0 and now have five games to make amends.

“It isn’t about Tuesday night,” said the York chief, who could be without Vadaine Oliver today at Chester due to a back injury. “It is about what we have done since January 1.

“That group of players have been unbelievable and given everything. I won’t let that one game take away everything we have once since January 1. It was a bad day at the office but is gone now. All we think about now is beating Chester.”

York sit two points adrift of safety, while the gap to safety for North Ferriby is eight points despite their stunning win at Forest Green Rovers.

Ahead of hosting Boreham Wood, Villagers manager Steve Housham said: “We need to build on last week’s great win.

“We want to end the season with as many wins and points as possible. The players’ professionalism and pride will ensure that they will keep battling.

“It is going to be another tough game but we believe that we can gain something from it. We also want to give something to the fans who have supported so well all season.

“They could easily have got on to the players’ backs but, instead, they have continually encouraged the team both home and away.”

Guiseley manager Adam Lockwood says the hard work remains as they tackle Forest Green today.

The Lions can breach the 50-point barrier with victory over the high-flying visitors, a colossal achievement given the club’s dire sequence of results in the opening few months of the campaign when it took them until their 14th match to bag their first win.

With five matches to go, 16th-placed Guiseley are six points above fourth-from-bottom Torquay and seven points in front of third-from-bottom York City and Lockwood claims: “We are nowhere near over the line – I want to finish as high as possible

“We have got some very tough games, as last Saturday’s was. That was a massive three points, but from where we were, every three points was massive to even stand a chance of getting where we wanted to be. We are still not there and, seeing some of the other results, we have to keep going.”