York City 2 Southend United 1: Ice-cool Worthington confident as Minstermen take it to wire

A haul of 52 points with one game remaining should have been enough to leave players and supporters already thinking of the beach.

Certainly, since the re-election process was abandoned by the Football League ahead of the 1986-87 season, no team has been demoted to the Conference with 50 points or more.

Instead, those who have slipped through the trapdoor have done so with a similar tally to the 44 and 37 that sent Hereford United and Macclesfield Town down a year ago.

This year, however, is different thanks to the teams near the foot of the division having discovered, over the last month or so, form more akin to that expected of title challengers.

Nigel Worthington’s Minstermen fall firmly into that camp after taking 11 points from their last five games to ensure they will, at least, go into the final day trip to Dagenham & Redbridge firmly in charge of their own destiny.

Win or even draw and York are safe. Lose, however, and everything will rest on whether Barnet and AFC Wimbledon can get the draw and victory they need to condemn City to the ignominy of becoming the first of the 33 teams promoted from the Conference over the past quarter-of-a-century to go straight back down after just one season.

Clearly, the stakes will be high come Saturday’s trip to Essex. York, though, will travel full of confidence after another stirring win, this time at the expense of Southend United.

Manager Worthington said: “I said on my first day that I thought it would go down to the wire and it has. We just have to keep doing our own jobs.

“I appreciate what people are saying about our points tally usually being enough (to stay up) but if the other sides around you are picking up points then anything can happen.

“We have seen that many times over the years. All we can do is concentrate on ourselves and do our own jobs well.

“We have character and that is important. We showed that in the second half (against Southend), when at times we had to dig in.”

York did, indeed, have to “dig in” during a heart-stopping finale that saw the Shrimpers bundle the ball into the net only to be denied by an offside flag and then Chris Smith clear a goalbound shot off the City line.

Asked about his emotions during those nerve-wracking final few minutes, a smiling Worthington replied: “They were fine.”

If the City manager really was that calm then he must have ice in his veins as everyone else inside Bootham Crescent – packed to capacity on three sides with a seasonal high crowd of 5,975 – was suffering palpitations.

Never was this more the case than when Barry Corr’s header crashed into the face of team-mate Gavin Tomlin and into the net with just a couple of minutes remaining on the clock.

As the small band of fans from Essex celebrated their side’s second equaliser of the afternoon, York’s season seemed to have imploded. Relief came after what, for the locals, had felt like an eternity but was actually a split second as the linesman raised his flag.

The drama, though, was far from over with City needing Smith to pull off a goal-line block to deny Corr in the fifth minute of stoppage time and clinch a precious three points.

On the balance of play, the Minstermen just about deserved their late reprieves after once again belying their lowly status to put in a display that was long on heart and desire.

It took the hosts just 55 seconds to open the scoring when Adam Reed capitalised on a clumsy Southend clearance that careered off Ryan Cresswell’s head and towards the Sunderland loanee, who then beat Daniel Bentley with a deft chip.

That the ball had fallen to Reed via such an unlikely route was fortunate.

So too, though, was how Phil Brown’s United equalised midway through the first half when Jack O’Connell’s sliced clearance headed towards Ryan Leonard, who helped the ball on its way past Michael Ingram courtesy of a delightfully deft flick.

For a time, the Minstermen lost their rhythm as Freddie Eastwood’s influence on proceedings started to grow.

However, it was the hosts who were destined to go in at the interval ahead thanks to a cool finish from Matty Blair after a sweeping move that had been started by a sublime pass from O’Connell that released Ashley Chambers down the left wing.

Southend threw everything at York in the second half but Worthington’s men stood firm to claim a precious victory to smash through the 50-point barrier that has, in the past, been enough to guarantee Football League status for another season.

This time around, of course, will be different with the previous high of 49 points that Oxford United went down with seven years ago having already been eclipsed by second-bottom AFC Wimbledon.

One man who is adamant that York will not be the fall guys in this unprecedented relegation fight is Daniel Parslow, who ahead of kick-off had been named ‘Clubman of the Year’ for a record third time.

“We have found our feet as a team,” said the 27-year-old, who is in his seventh season at Bootham Crescent and has 299 appearances for the club to his name.

“This past month, we have shown what we are about on the pitch. We just need to do the same again next week.

“Ideally, we would have wrapped it all up by beating Southend. But this is just the way it is. We have to go to Dagenham and Redbridge and get a result.”