A “GUTTED” Michael Rankine has been challenged to bounce back from his penalty woe at Kettering by becoming the match winner in tomorrow night’s home match with top-of-the-table Crawley.

Rankine’s 88th-minute miss from the spot cost the Minstermen the chance of victory in Saturday’s 1-1 draw.

It also meant City failed to capitalise fully on favourable results with play-off rivals Kidderminster and Wrexham both dropping points, drawing 3-3 with Luton and going down 2-0 at home to Hayes and Yeading respectively.

City boss Gary Mills, though, was in no mood to scapegoat Rankine, who had converted seven out of seven penalties prior to Saturday.

The Minstermen chief said: “Michael Rankine is the penalty taker and his penalty taking this season has been fantastic but, occasionally, someone misses one. I missed one once at Barnsley and it’s probably still on it’s way to York.

“It’s hard for him to take and he’s gutted because he knows the importance of it but you get ups and downs in football. If you’re a proper player, you have to come back from the downs like a man and he’ll have to get me the winner now tomorrow.”

With Rankine starting on the bench at Kettering, Jamie Reed had earlier assumed penalty-taking duties when City were awarded a sixth-minute spot kick.

Reed’s attempt was initially saved by home ’keeper Willie Gueret, but the Bangor City striker followed up to give City a lead that was cancelled out by Kieron St Aimie’s second-half equaliser.

When referee Andy Hendley pointed to the spot a second time, Rankine was on the pitch and Mills was happy for Reed to hand back the 12-yard responsibility, adding: “It’s easy to talk after the event but if Jamie Reed had taken it and missed, people would have asked me why the number one penalty taker didn’t take it.”

Reed and Chris Smith also hit the bar for City, while David McGurk had a chance cleared off the line and Rankine and Ashley Chambers both failed to convert further excellent opportunities.

Mills lamented his team’s failure to make their dominance count but remained upbeat on the club’s play-off aspirations, saying: “Football’s all about taking your chances. We beat Histon and Eastbourne 1-0 but both games should have been out of sight. One goal is never enough.

“There’s always a chance something might happen and the big man that scored did well for them when he came on. I don’t want to make too much of an issue about it though because it gets in players’ heads.

“We keep getting into areas to score goals and nobody is fearing that they are going to miss. It’s not a lack of confidence in the 18-yard box but we’re not putting opportunities away and to be successful you have to.

“Missing a penalty with a couple of minutes to go is hard but we have to take it on the chin. We have to think this might prove a massive point.

“Any manager in any league would say they’d take a point away from home. We should have won this match but we have to move forward.

“We are still in there fighting and we’ve got four home games on the trot now, so don’t write us off yet.”

Despite City’s troubles finding the net, Reed has now scored five times in the last four matches – even if his latest effort was a little fortuitous.

The former Bangor City forward was handed the lone 4-3-3 central striking role in preference to Rankine for the first time at Rockingham Road before later moving wide but Mills was impressed with his performance over 90 minutes, adding: “I thought he was excellent and is getting better and better. He was a handful for them, his link up play was good and he held the ball up well, which isn’t his strength.

“I decided to go with Ashley Chambers and Jamie Reed’s pace in attack from the start and we should have had three or four before Ashley had to go off. He’s pulled his hamstring again and that’s a big blow.”

Midfielder Scott Kerr was ruled out from the start with Mills explaining: “He woke up with a back spasm and we will have to work on it to see if he’ll be okay for tomorrow.”

While not looking for excuses, Mills also branded a patchy and dry Rockingham Road playing surface “disgusting”.

He said: “My biggest disappointment was coming to a Conference club and having to play on a pitch that wasn’t Sunday League standard. I’ve never seen a pitch as bad.”