Restoring York City pride John Askey's reward after returning Minstermen to Conference with 2-0 win over Boston United

The Minstermen won 2-0 with goals early and late from Lenell John-Lewis and Maz Kouhyar to win a sometimes tense final watched by 7,448 fans.

With support like that on top of their Football League pedigree, York have always felt they should not be in the sixth tier, but it has taken them a long time to earn the right to get out of it.

The relief as the crowd celebrated with the now-inevitable pitch invasion was palpable.

"I know how much it means to this football club," said Askey, who took over as caretaker manager in November. "Although I've never had any links to the club before, I know how important it is to get to a level that makes the club feel proud again."

York chairman Jason McGill has taken the brunt of much of the inevitable frustration as his team floundered whilst in the midst of a very long drawn-out move to a new stadium which only finally went through in January 2020, but Askey was quick to pay tribute to him for the part he played.

"We were fortunate with some of the players who came in in January. It was a time when the football club could have said to me, 'You've got to stick with what you've got,' but the football club was supportive and the chairman supported me when we needed it," he stressed. "That turned it around.

"It was not that I didn't think we were good enough, it was just with the amount of games we had I thought it was going to be really difficult because with some of the pitches we played o, no matter how good you are it's abut fighting and competing.

"We had a spell where I was still trying to work it out and thankfully we managed to work out how to go to certain places and get results."

John-Lewis, who scored the only goal in the semi-final win at Brackley had been painted as a fitness doubt for the game, but it was only a smokescreen.

"We always knew from the Monday onwards he would be playing and what was good was he got his goal early on and I think that kept him going.

"Second half he was virtually playing on one leg but we couldn't bring him or Clayts (Clayton Donaldson) off no matter how tired they looked because of their physical strength.

"I thought we started the game well. These sort of games are never going to be a great spectacle, it's the atmosphere that makes it.

"We just handled it. We got the goal early on and the players showed in the second half they had the fitness. It's just so pleasing - I can't believe it's happened, really."

The only disappointment for York was losing left-back Scott Barrow to a serious-looking knee injury. He made it onto the pitch for the post-match presentation but needed crutches and a big brace on his right knee.

"We just hope it's not as serious as it looked because he's been really good since I came in," said Askey. "He's been terrific in the last four or five minths.

"I just hope he's fine because he's had plenty of injuries in his career that have stopped him playing higher."