YORK City boss Gary Mills felt his team enjoyed some overdue luck as they edged past Brackley Town to reach the semi-finals of the FA Trophy.

Jon Parkin’s eighth goal of the season, including four for previous club Newport, secured a 1-0 victory over the Northamptonshire part-timers after he had seen an early penalty saved by keeper Laurie Walker.

But, after trailing at the break, Brackley dominated the second period, hitting the crossbar three times and forcing Kyle Letheren into two fine saves, with Mills admitting: “For once, maybe we were lucky and that feels good, because we haven’t been over the last few weeks and I want to be lucky between now and the end of May. We’ve worked hard for that little bit of luck.

“We’re now a couple of games away from getting to Wembley again, which is great, but we’ll be switching our focus back to the league programme straight away.”

City returned to the bottom of the National League, while they were in Trophy action, as North Ferriby won 2-1 at Guiseley.

But that result, coupled with defeats for Southport, Woking and Torquay as well as a 0-0 draw between Braintree and Maidstone, meant none of the six clubs that started the afternoon immediately above the Minstermen picked up wins, as the six-point gap to safety remained unchanged, leading Mills to reason: “Whether we’re second-bottom or bottom is immaterial really.

“I’d rather North Ferriby won that game than Guiseley and we seem to have been lucky with the other results, so it was a lucky day all round.”

Summarising a match that both managers agreed was influenced by blustery conditions, Mills added: “I don’t think we had a shot in the second half and they only had one in the first.

“The wind had an impact, but the best bit of quality in the game was Sean Newton’s cross and that ended up winning the tie and, although it won’t be good for my grey hair or my heart and the fans don’t like it much, if we have to get a lead and then come under pressure in the second half of every game to get the points we need and to get to Wembley, then I’ll take that.”

The Minstermen also saw Danny Holmes sent off on 86 minutes after two bookable offences, meaning he will now serve a one-match ban during Tuesday night’s trip to table-topping Lincoln.

It was a decision Mills did not challenge, pointing out: “If you pull somebody’s shirt on the edge of the box you’re going to get booked and that’s what he did. I didn’t see the first one but, if he’s held their player down to stop him getting up, then that’s a booking as well, so we can’t have any argument.”

Yan Klukowski, meanwhile, suffered a recurrence of his calf injury just quarter-of-an-hour into the game, meaning he will miss the trip to Sincil Bank, where Shaun Rooney and reserve keeper Luke Simpson are now expected to receive recalls to the bench.

City chief Mills will be pondering whether to persist with 3-4-3 for that clash or revert to the 3-5-2 system he changed to early in the second half against Brackley when striker Vadaine Oliver made way for midfielder Holmes.

Explaining the switch, Mills said: “They were on the front foot in the second half and (James) Armson is a good player in the middle of the park, so I felt we needed another player in there. You can see why he scores goals, so we tried to nullify that a bit.

“Our front three have been doing well, but I’ve got food for thought now before Tuesday. It wasn’t an easy choice which of them to take off, but Vadaine wasn’t really getting into the game and, while Jon’s not as mobile, he uses his experience to drop into areas where he can win balls, which was important to us.”

The Trophy semi-final draw will be made tomorrow morning at 10.30am via Periscope on the FA’s Twitter account.

Promotion-chasing Lincoln and Tranmere are also in the last four, while Macclesfield will host Dulwich Hamlet in a replay on Tuesday night to decide the remaining semi-finalist.

First-leg ties are due to be played on March 11, but Lincoln are in FA Cup quarter-final action against Arsenal on that date so, if City draw the Imps, their scheduled league match at Sutton United will go ahead instead.

Return legs will be played on Saturday, March 18, meaning the home match with Bromley will definitely need to be rearranged.