UNDER-PRESSURE York City boss Jackie McNamara has insisted he won’t walk away from Bootham Crescent and that he wants to lead the club to Sky Bet League One.

A 1-0 home defeat to Aldershot saw City slip to sixth-bottom in the National League standings – two points above the drop zone – but the Minstermen chief is still targeting the play-offs.

The hosts could not find a response to Bernard Mensah’s first-half goal for the Shots as McNamara’s men failed to find the net for a fifth successive games.

Frustrated City supporters chanted “Jackie Out” late in the game, but the ex-Dundee United chief, who said he would consider his position after last weekend’s 2-0 defeat at Barrow, is in no mood to tender his resignation.

He said: “I’ve never been one to give up or throw the towel in and I’ve always stood up and fought in life. When the first team don’t win, I know it falls on me, but it’s not for the want of trying.

“The easiest thing for me to do would be to go back to my wife and kids in Scotland. I know the first team gets people through the doors, but I came here to change the whole club and I want to be here until the chairman tells me otherwise.

“People don’t see the work and passion that myself and the chairman put into the club, not just into the first team, but the academy and youth team, who won 3-0 this morning. The chairman has lofty ambitions, but they’re not as lofty as mine.

“I don’t want to be at this level or League Two and the chairman believes in what we want to be and how we will change things. Getting rid of me would also be the easiest thing for him to do, but he’s a strong man, who is standing by me and what he believes in and I’m humbled by that.

“We are 13 games in and there’s a long way to go. The top five is still achievable, but we need to be more clinical.

“We’re looking at that and, when we get it right, I believe we won’t be far away.”

McNamara also reasoned that any criticism for the club’s current position should not be levelled at chairman Jason McGill, adding: “He’s done so much for the club and people don’t realise how much effort and commitment he puts in, not to mention the money.

“He has another successful business, which means he has to go and work to pay for things here.”

Despite a third consecutive defeat, McNamara went on to praise his players’ commitment to himself and the club, arguing: “The players were putting their bodies on the line and gave everything they had in terms of work-rate.

“They are fighting for me and working hard for each other. If they weren’t, I would look at that.”

Summing up the reasons for another loss, though, the City boss reiterated the need to find a clinical streak.

“We made a mistake and, then, after their through ball, I was looking across to see if their player was offside, but the left back played him on,” McNamara pointed out. “We’d earlier had a chance at 0-0 when Danny Galbraith was running through but Aidan Connolly was given offside and these things are going against us.

“We also lacked a bit of belief having not scored for a while and the main one was when Daniel Nti should have put in a cross for Richard Brodie to make it 1-1 with a few minutes to go, but we lacked that clinical bit you need to kill teams off.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Guiseley, City will now monitor Aidan Connolly after he was stretchered off with a recurrence of his hamstring problem and Alex Whittle, who was replaced at the interval with blurred vision.