YORK City skipper Russell Penn has suggested relegation from the Football League could be a "good thing" for the club.

The 30-year-old midfielder has cited the examples of his old club – recently-crowned National League champions Cheltenham – as cause for optimism, along with last season's play-off winners Bristol Rovers, who are now challenging for promotion to Sky Bet League One.

Both clubs bounced back at the first attempt after losing their League status and, despite chairman Jason McGill's declaration that an extra £500,000 will be needed if the team are to be competitive next term, Penn said: "I wouldn't have dreamt this could happen two years ago when we were in the League Two play-offs.

"Well, if I had, it would have been a nightmare. But it has happened and it's happened to plenty of other clubs.

"We've got to make sure it doesn't again and, whilst I know it's an easy thing to say, this could be a good thing for the club. I understand fans' frustrations have built up over the season but, whoever is here next season, we will have to dust ourselves down and go again, because the club's not done.

"To the die-hards, it feels like the end of the world and York are down and never coming back but, as we have seen from the last two seasons with other teams, that doesn't have to be the case. You have just got to recruit properly and sort things out behind the scenes.

"As a whole squad - in terms of players selected and not selected - we've not been good enough. It's been a recipe for disaster in terms of managers coming and going, along with the amount of players we have used and loan signings made.

"We know that but, hopefully, we can learn from this and come back stronger because this is a big club that has got to be in the League and we have a big chance next season to get back up." Along with 12 other players - Josh Carson, Danny Galbraith, Taron Hare, Femi Ilesanmi, Michael Ingham, Kenny McEvoy, Derek Riordan, Callum Rzonca, Emile Sinclair, Luke Summerfield, George Swan and Dave Winfield - Penn will be out of contract at the end of the season and admitted he could be cast aside in this summer's rebuilding process.

"Cheltenham pretty much cleared out a lot of the squad and brought in fresh players, bar a few," he pointed out. "I don't know how we will do it and that's up to the chairman and manager, but it seems to have worked there and will probably be the case here because there are so few players contracted anyway and we haven't really got the power to ask for new deals because of what's happened.

"It's out of my hands and up to the club whether they think I've done enough to get another contract." Penn added that when relegation was confirmed following the 3-0 defeat at Accrington on Saturday, it didn't quite come as the blow that might have been expected, having been on the cards for so long.

"It was a low and disappointing, but inevitable anyway and never just about that game," he reasoned. "It's not as if it was the last game of the season and in our own hands.

"It's been out of our hands for a long time. We've been pretty much in the bottom two since losing to Yeovil in January and have just drifted away.

"The win over Portsmouth, the game before, was frustrating more than anything because, if we had produced more performances like that, we would have been nowhere near the bottom of the league, but the game against Accrington showed why we are where we are.

"We didn't work hard enough and that was probably more the case than in any other game against a well-drilled team. The gaffer knows that and he will sort it out." Penn went on to agree with manager Jackie McNamara's previous assertion that some players have shied away from the challenge of saving the club's Football League status.

"Being down the bottom hasn't helped some of the players in our squad because it's tough mentally getting booed off," he explained. "The times that has happened this season is probably in double figures and it's easy for players to then hide."