YORK City boss Gary Mills has insisted Harrogate Town have an unfair advantage ahead of Saturday’s derby clash at the National League North leaders.

But the Bootham Crescent chief has told his players they must rise to the challenge of gaining a result on the Wetherby Road outfit’s 3G pitch and ensure their passing is precise.

The Minstermen emerged unbeaten from three fixtures on artificial turf last term, beating Harlow in the FA Trophy and sharing the spoils with Maidstone and Sutton.

City will also be prepared for the synthetic surface, having trained at York Sport Village in the two days building up to the contest.

Outlining his thoughts on the 3G test, Mills reasoned: “Maidstone and Sutton are still doing well on their 3G pitches and are both in the top seven of the division above. Harrogate and Tamworth have both got them in our division and they’re in the top six as well.

“Harrogate are a passing side and playing and training on the 3G pitch every other week is an advantage – there’s no two ways about that and I don’t care what anybody says. You get a feel for it and I don’t think it’s a true game of football, because you don’t get a true run of the ball.

“On grass, if the ball isn’t played to feet then, nine times out of ten, you can still get to it. On 3G, you’ve got no chance of that and balls you put down the line that might run out of play will also stay in, so your accuracy has to be a lot better.

“But that should always be the case anyway really and we’ll treat it as a challenge and train on the surface at York Sports Village for two days before we go there. We’re grateful to have that chance of using somewhere so close by, because it’s important we work on the same type of pitch before going there to get used to it.”

Adriano Moke is available after missing the last six games due to a pulled thigh muscle and Mills admitted Harrogate’s rubber-crumb ground could enhance the ex-Wrexham midfielder’s hopes for an immediate recall.

“He has trained all week and maybe the surface will suit somebody like Mokes, with his close control and ability to run with the ball,” Mills pointed out. “He could even play in behind the strikers.”

The identity of the visitors’ frontline is uncertain with top-scorer Jon Parkin believing 3G pitches aggravate his knees and Michael Rankine still undergoing tests after being ruled out for last weekend’s 2-1 FA Cup triumph at Salford due to high blood pressure.

On the pair’s prospects, Mills said: “We’re hoping Jon will be fine. He’d rather not play and we’d rather he didn’t, but he played at Sutton last season and we know he’s a big player for us.

“He gets us goals and, on the back of two last weekend, he’ll want to play. We’re still waiting on results with Michael Rankine and are hoping he’ll be available too.”

If both are missing, though, Kaine Felix could be handed his second start of the campaign, having impressed Mills off the bench in Manchester.

“Kaine keeps coming on and giving us something, so it’s nice to have him as an option,” the City boss declared.

The fixture pits Mills against his former Tamworth defender Simon Weaver, with the Minstermen chief also appreciating the magnitude of the match for the hosts, who will be meeting their North Yorkshire neighbours as league equals for the first-ever time.

On Harrogate’s threat, Mills added: “They have had a good start and we have had an OK start that we’ve begun to build on. We know, if we beat them, we go five points behind them but, if we lose, that gap becomes 11, so we’ve got to go and get a result and show what we are about.

“They’re scoring lots of goals and it’s a local derby in which we’ll have to be at our best. They are above us in the league and could only have dreamt about that a couple of years ago, so they will want to get one over the former League side who have been there and done it and we have to make sure they don’t.

“Three wins and a draw from our last four games has given us a bit more confidence, particularly when we’ve gone somewhere like Salford and won when we were underdogs because they’d not lost for ten games.

“Away from home, our form is particularly good and we’re going away again. I also think we’re getting used to everything in this league, which takes a bit of time.”