YORK City boss Gary Mills wants his team to regain a little of the confidence they have lost – starting with a surprise result in tonight’s top v bottom clash at Lincoln.

A month ago Mills felt his players knew they were capable of beating anybody in the National League, but a run of two points from a possible nine, followed by an edgy FA Trophy win over Brackley, has seen some of that self-belief eroded.

Reasoning that injuries to Simon Lappin and Yan Klukowski have taken their toll in that respect, Mills still has faith in the group of players available to him at Sincil Bank and said: “We’ve got to get the feeling back that we can beat anybody because we had that when we won against Barrow before Yan and Lapps went down.

“It’s not so long ago that Kyle (Letheren) was hardly facing a shot and we’re not a million miles away from that. We’ve won six, drawn five and lost two of our last 13 matches and have got 13 left and, whilst I know some of those games have been in the Trophy, it doesn’t matter because, if we carry on that form, we will be fine.

“It’s March on Wednesday and the start of two massive months for the football club but your whole mental outlook can change in one game and, if we were to win at Lincoln, it wouldn’t do us any harm. They’re full of confidence and not many teams, of all standards, have got a result against them, but we’ve got to prove we can upset the odds.”

Rather than reflecting on an underwhelming second-half display against Brackley that saw the visitors create 13 chances to the hosts’ none, Mills also accentuated the positives of keeping a clean sheet in such circumstances.

“Everything isn’t perfect but, if we go on to win the Trophy, nobody will be talking about our second half against Brackley,” Mills insisted. “I won a European Cup in 1980 with Nottingham Forest and the only minute we attacked we scored.

“We defended for the other 89, but all people talk about now is us winning the game. We all want to attack and score goals, but defending is a massive part of football.”