YORK City manager Jackie McNamara believes he can emulate Bristol Rovers boss Darrell Clarke by challenging for Sky Bet League Two promotion in two years’ time.

Clarke, who will be McNamara’s touchline adversary tomorrow, lost five of his first eight games in charge as the Pirates were surprisingly relegated into the National League after he took over from ex-Minstermen chief John Ward at the tail end of the 2013/14 season.

The former Mansfield and Hartlepool defender went on to release 16 players and make 13 free transfer signings as Rovers returned to the Football League last summer after a play-off final victory over Grimsby.

Now, 12 months on, Clarke is targeting back-to-back promotion and City chief McNamara said: “I believe I can do the same – absolutely.

“There was a bigger picture in terms of what we wanted to achieve when I came down here. It wasn’t just a short-term fix and, credit to the chairman, he has put a lot of faith and trust in what we have done before.

“He doesn’t want constant crisis management. He wants to do things properly and I don’t want to let him down.”

McNamara has added, meanwhile, that his team must endeavour to finish a sorry season by extending their unbeaten run at Bootham Crescent to a sixth game.

“It’s our last home game of the season and I want to make sure we put on a good show to sign off in the right way,” the former Scotland international insisted. “Our home form will be massive next season when we will be looking to widen the pitch again and make it as big as possible to suit the players we want to bring in, so it would be good to take a bit of home form into next season.”

Despite relegation confirmed, McNamara also expects the team to demonstrate a determination to finish ahead of bottom-of-the-table Dagenham, who currently trail the Minstermen by two points.

He has no interest in the other end of the table, though, ahead of a game that is vital to the visitors’ automatic promotion hopes and those of top-three rivals Accrington, Oxford and Plymouth and Portsmouth.

“I don’t want to finish bottom and the game will be about pride and character,” he explained. “I’m not thinking about doing other teams’ favours, though, because the only duty we have is to our fans and that means winning games of football.”

Jake Hyde has trained this week and could return to the squad, but Femi Ilesanmi (hamstring) and Vadaine Oliver (calf) remain doubtful.