York City 0 Alfreton Town 1: York deserved to be beaten, admits Mills

“We were second-best and didn’t have any life in us and we got what we deserved,” he said.

“The pace was too slow from the start. We need to play at a high tempo but we were very poor. We played to their strengths by putting too many high balls up the middle to their centre-halves.

“We have a break now until our next game at Tamworth on September 10 and we will be working on putting things right.”

York, who dropped three places to sixth, had played some fine on-the-ground passing football in previous matches but they relied far too often on hit-and-hope high balls which the tall Alfreton central defenders gobbled up with relish.

York never moved with any conviction and yet it might have been so different if Patrick McLaughlin had taken a gilt-edged chance after 28 minutes.

He ran clear and could have taken the ball round the oncoming Dan Lowson but elected to shoot and Lowson parried his effort.

The only other occasion Lowson was tested was in added time when Ashley Chambers’s low shot was saved to his left.

Ironically, the winning goal came from ex-York player Levi Mackin, who scored from the penalty spot in the 42nd minute after Andrew Boucaud had tripped Paul Clayton right under the referee’s nose.

York City: Ingham; Parslow, Smith, McGurk, Meredith (Fyfield, 63), Boucaud (Challinor, 56), Kerr, McLaughlin (Reid, 46), Chambers, Walker, Moke. Unused substitutes: Pilkington, Potts.

Alfreton Town: Lowson; Franks, Wilson, Young, Franklin, Mullan, Mackin, Streete, Brown, Clayton (Jarman, 82), Senior (Ellison, 87). Unused substitutes: Moult, Hall, Hawes.

Referee: Stephen Smith (Darlington).