YORK City boss Gary Mills insisted his team did not deserve to lose for the first time in ten away games at Dagenham.

The hosts secured a 1-0 victory courtesy of sub Frankie Raymond’s 82nd-minute strike in a contest that Mills felt his team were going to win.

Amari Morgan-Smith and Dan Parslow both hit the frame of the goal for the visitors, but it was the play-off hopefuls that took the points, leaving City still five adrift of a place outside the relegation zone.

Mills is now challenging his team to show their mettle at Macclesfield on Tuesday night before back-to-back Bootham Crescent clashes with Braintree and Bromley.

He said: “It all came down to one bit of quality from their lad for the goal, but we hit the bar and post and I couldn’t see us losing. We didn’t deserve to and I thought we were going to win.

“We had chances to do that, so it was a disappointing and tough day for all the players because it’s another game gone, but we will keep fighting and battling away and I’m proud of them. They gave everything and the fans clapped them off.

“Our supporters know how difficult it is mentally and physically to keep doing what we’re doing, but we will do and we’ll stick together. Tuesday night is one of our games in hand, so we’ve got to bounce back and work as hard as we can to get a win at Macclesfield.

“We’re big and strong enough to do that. Then, we’ve got two home games that we have to win.”

On-loan Notts County keeper Scott Loach was given his City debut at Victoria Road with Kyle Letheren ruled out due to back spasms and Mills was pleased with the former England under-21 international’s performance, adding: “He looked solid and took a couple of crosses, whilst also making an excellent save.

“He’s a good keeper and he’ll be disappointed not to have kept a clean sheet, but it took a bit of quality to beat him.”

Long-throw specialist Sam Muggleton, meanwhile, was brought on after 78 minutes with the game delicately poised and his impressive talent almost saw Asa Hall score before Raymond’s strike, with Mills admitting the former Eastleigh left-back will continue to have an important role to play during the crucial eight-game run-in.

“We brought Sam on for 15 minutes and that wasn’t desperation because he helped us on Tuesday night and, hopefully, will do again at some stage,” the City chief explained.

Physio Jeff Miller, meanwhile, did not make the trip to Dagenham, but the club declined to comment on the reason for his absence.