YORK City boss Jackie McNamara wants to give the club’s away fans some overdue cheer ahead of Saturday’s trip to promotion hopefuls Accrington Stanley.

The Minstermen have not won in 20 attempts on their travels, including 13 defeats and two draws under McNamara.

City’s sole success on the road this season remains a 3-0 victory at Newport back on September 5 when the Welsh club had only taken one point form their opening five matches.

McNamara’s men will arrive in Lancashire having lost seven successive away fixtures whilst, at home, the team have only been defeated twice in their last ten outings.

More than 500 fans made last weekend’s trip to Hartlepool with a similar number expected at the Crown Ground and, following on from Tuesday night’s 3-1 triumph over Portsmouth at Bootham Crescent, the City boss said: “This season has been tough for the fans, especially those that go away.

“They have travelled in great numbers and we’ve not given them enough to cheer about. But, if the supporters see commitment and their team trying to play the proper way, they will respond to that and we’ve got three games left, including two away, to give everything and restore a bit of pride.”

City take on second-placed Stanley lying nine points from safety with three games left to play and a goal difference that is 11 inferior to Newport – the only team they now have a mathematical chance of over-hauling to save their Sky Bet Football League status.

The Welsh club travel to Luton, who have an outside chance of making the play-offs, on Saturday, before playing host to Notts County next weekend and wrapping up their campaign at Wimbledon.

Whilst his side now only harbour a remote hope of avoiding relegation, McNamara still believes a City win this weekend and a loss for Newport, who have taken just one point from a possible 21, could be of major psychological significance going into the last two fixtures and reasoned: “Anything is possible and we have to go into every game still believing that.

“Newport only need a point from three games but, if they get beaten on Saturday and we win, it would put some pressure on them. That’s why our game is crucial because, without a win, everything is pointless.

“I’ve only been in one relegation fight before as a player at the age of 35 with Falkirk and that last game was like a cup final. That’s how we told the players to treat the Portsmouth match and we’ll be saying the same at Accrington.”

John Coleman’s team, meanwhile, need maximum points to guarantee keeping their spot in League Two’s automatic promotion places, but McNamara argued that his team tend to perform better when the stakes are high for the opposition too, adding: “Accrington are a decent side who have shown a real hunger to work hard and fight for everything all season, but Portsmouth, Wycombe and Leyton Orient were all going for the play-offs when we played them and it seemed to suit us, because we beat one of them and drew with the other two when we should have won as well.

“Last weekend, Hartlepool didn’t have anything to play for and we didn’t do well enough in certain areas.”

McNamara is also keen to prove his team is now stronger, as the season draws to a close, than the side that succumbed to 5-1 and 3-2 defeats against Accrington during the early weeks of his reign.

“I think there’s a massive difference between this team and those that played Accrington earlier in the season and we’ve got to go and show that again, like we did against Portsmouth,” he said. “We did the same with Wycombe.

“The team had lost 3-0 there on the opening day and, when we drew 1-1 with them, their manager came in my office and admitted we looked better in terms of the way we were playing and how many problems we caused them.”

Injured quartet Michael Coulson, Jake Hyde, Femi Ilesanmi and Vadaine Oliver remain doubtful for the trip and, while Dave Winfield is back from his one-match suspension, the experienced defender might have to watch from the bench with City likely to field an unchanged starting XI.

“Dave has been a plus since I came here and his availability gives us a decision to make, but I have to think about the messages I send out because the players on Tuesday night put themselves out there and gave everything,” McNamara explained. “People came to the game expecting us to go down, but they took responsibility and showed the commitment to win their battles.”