MINSTERMEN SURVIVAL NOT LOST ON BOSS MILLS
YORK CITY boss Gary Mills takes on former club Wrexham knowing another win will see the Minstermen take a giant stride towards safety.
Mills returned to York – the club he led to promotion in 2012 through the play-offs – in October, a week after he was axed by the Welsh outfit.
He was tasked with turning a season around that had quickly turned sour following their relegation from the Football League last summer.
Since then they’ve been staring a second consecutive drop in the face before a late revival.
As well as reaching the FA Trophy final, Mills’ side have won six of their last ten games to move out of the drop zone.
Experienced campaigners like Jon Parkin and Sean Newton have helped, along with loan signings Daniel Parslow and Amari Morgan-Smith, who both won the title with Cheltenham Town last season.
On Friday, York beat Solihull Moors 2-1 to leap up to 18th place – although they are level on points with three clubs below them.
Mills told his players to put their latest success out of their minds immediately and concentrate on making it a perfect Easter weekend.
“We still know there’s a lot of work to do and I’ve said to the players to forget about this result and to concentrate on Monday’s game [with Wrexham],” Mills said. “We will come in on Sunday and do a little bit of training and talk
through a few things.
“This is the toughest challenge I’ve ever had in management. I’m thriving on it because I know how important it is for this football club to stay in this division. You either thrive on it or cave in and I’m thriving on it.”
The end of the season probably can’t come soon enough for Wrexham and their boss Dean Keates, who replaced Mills at the helm.
Sitting in mid-table, they failed to mount any sort of promotion push that the fans had been hoping for.
Keates will no doubt want to continue putting his own stamp on the team during the summer and he’s warned his current players that they are playing for their futures in a Dragons shirt.
“There’s a little bit of spice and we’ll be taking a decent following but it’s up to the players,” Keates, a former Wrexham captain now in his first management job, said. “We need to finish the season with as much optimism as possible but it’s the players who are trying to earn a career, whether it is here or at another football club. “They need to get out there and do the best they can for themselves and give themselves a chance of still being at this club.”