Road work ahead for Minstermen (From York Press)

Road work ahead for York City

12:20pm Tuesday 21st August 2012 in Sport By Dave Flett, Sports reporter

YORK City manager Gary Mills does not mind if his team are better on the road again in 2012/13, as long as the club gains back-to-back promotions.

The Minstermen collected five more points away from Bootham Crescent than they did at their home stadium on the way to securing a play-off place last term.

In fact, going into tonight’s first League trip of the new season at Morecambe, Mills’ team had also won all of their last five away matches prior to the penalty shoot-out defeat at Doncaster in the Capital One Cup.

Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Wycombe Wanderers on League Two’s opening day, however, means City have now won just one of their last six fixtures on their own soil.

After tonight’s Globe Arena clash, the Minstermen also visit Barnet on Saturday and Mills confessed: “It would not bother me if we are better away from home again, as long as we get the same end result as last season.

“In an ideal world, your home form should be important in making you successful. The normal way is to win your home games and pick up results away.

“We did it the other way last season to an extent but our approach is no different for any game, home or away. We are capable of winning all of them.

“Last season, some teams came at us a bit when we were the away team and that helped us, so we will have to see if that’s the case this season.”

Mills also believes nobody from City or Morecambe should be over reacting after the team’s respective results at the weekend with the Shrimps kicking off with a surprise 3-0 triumph at Exeter.

The City boss said: “It was the first game of the season and funny things happen.

“We did not get the rub of the green and, without taking anything away from their finishes, that’s cost us points.

“I won’t be getting carried away because we lost and, while Morecambe have had a perfect start with a 3-0 win, it’s only one game.

“It always takes a few games to get a true reflection of a team’s capabilities.“It doesn’t make us a poor side because we lost our first match and the fact that they won does not make them a great side either. It’s all about consistency and picking up enough points during the season to be successful.”

City’s attacking options will continue to be limited by injuries to Jamie Reed (hamstring) and Oli Johnson (groin) with Mills adding: “It’s frustrating because they are two strikers we thought we would have available going into the start of the season.”

Centre-back David McGurk is still “not up to speed” either, ruling him out along with long-term casualty Scott Kerr .

But the Minstermen are still expected to make changes from the weekend with a recall for last season’s top scorer Matty Blair , who has started the first two games on the bench, one possibility.

Mills said: “I won’t go public on any changes that I might or might not make but everybody has a chance of playing, as they always do.”

On his hopes for an improvement at the Globe Arena, Mills said: “We need to retain possession better. According to the stats we had 60 per cent of the play against Wycombe but I feel we could have had more.”

• York City youngsters produced a solid display to topple hosts Notts County 3-1.

Patient play in the face of a physical approach by County was rewarded when a long-range cross from Reece Kelly sailed into the back of the Magpies’ net.

Jordan Outerbridge put in a strong challenge to break up a County raid leading to good link-up play, which enabled Danny Middleton to lash the ball into the top of the net.

County halved the arrears with a penalty and prompted a stern bout of pressure for the last ten minutes.

But victory was sealed when the Minster colts restored the two-goal advantage with a neat slice of opportunism from Chris Banks from six yards out.