YORK City manager Gary Mills has admitted he has “great” selection problems ahead of tomorrow’s Blue Square Bet Premier match at table-topping AFC Wimbledon.

The return of defender David McGurk from suspension and Neil Barrett’s recovery from a kneecap injury leave Mills pondering whether to make changes to the team that beat the Dons 4-1 at Bootham Crescent in the Minstermen’s last outing 11 days ago.

Hinting that new signing Liam Darville would retain his place at right-back, Mills suggested McGurk may be competing for two of three centre-back positions with Daniel Parslow and skipper Chris Smith.

Barrett, meanwhile, will be contesting a midfield place with the likes of Jonathan Smith and Levi Mackin, who has overcome the quad muscle problem that caused him to be substituted just past the hour mark in the home game with the Wombles.

Other than fielding Barrett for the rested Mackin, Mills selected the same side that faced Wimbledon for the first half of Monday’s 0-0 behind- closed-doors draw against Leeds.

But the City boss pointed out that nothing should be read into that decision, adding: “I’ve got some great problems at the moment.

“Everybody is fully fit which is fantastic. It also means I’ll have to disappoint and upset some and delight others, but that’s what I get paid for.

“Dan Parslow was superb against Wimbledon at centre-half after coming in from right-back. Apart from my first game here, it was the first time I had seen him at centre-half and he was excellent.

“As for Dave McGurk, we would not have turned down what Luton offered for him if I did not rate him highly so it looks like two from him, Dan and Chris Smith will be in and I’ll make that decision before 3pm tomorrow. Neil Barrett is also back and has trained well after his 45 minutes on Monday.

“He had been playing superbly and injury is the only reason he would have come out of the side so he’s staking a claim to come back in now.”

Mills believed his side were the better team against a strong Leeds line-up this week and feels that performance, coupled with the 4-1 win over tomorrow’s hosts, should mean his players arrive at Kinsgmeadow capable of defying the hosts’ hopes of revenge.

He said: “They will want to put things right but we have to show them that the result here wasn’t a fluke.

“We want to prove that we are as good as the team that’s top of the league even though our journey this season has been different to theirs.

“We will go there with confidence. We’ve had a couple of nightmares on the road with the Luton and Southport fiascos when we had players sent off and did not respond too well.

“But, when it’s 11 v 11, we proved against Wimbledon that we have a squad of players capable of beating anybody.”

Despite being without a league match last week, City’s outlook in the battle for play-off places was actually enhanced.

For the first time since Mills’ arrival in mid-October, the Minstermen now know their destiny lies in their own hands with a top-five spot certain should they capitalise fully on their current run of games in hand.

Mills will now examine closely how his players respond to that test, adding: “Everybody is saying that we can get into the play-offs. It’s not as simple as that but the challenge is there.

“We’ve now got to prove to them that we can do it.

“To go into tomorrow’s game knowing that we can go into the top five if we win our games in hand shows how far we have come.

“Now, it can become mentally tougher dealing with expectations.

“The players have got to be strong enough to cope with the pressure and I think they can.

“We’ve got to make sure at 5pm tomorrow that getting in the top five is still in our hands because, if we get a win at Wimbledon, it would set up Tuesday night’s home match with Fleetwood nicely.”