YORK City boss Gary Mills dedicated a first win in 36 away matches to the club’s “unbelievable” supporters.

The Bootham Crescent chief celebrated a 1-0 victory at National League relegation rivals North Ferriby with visiting fans at the end of the Grange Lane clash.

After seeing Aarran Racine’s 13th-minute header end the 15-month wait for success on the road, Mills went on to express his gratitude for the Minstermen faithful’s continued patience and loyalty.

On the scenes at the final whistle, Mills said: “It was relief at winning a game of football, because we’ve not done that for a while and it felt good. The fans have been incredible.

“I think they are the only set of supporters who, having been through what they have been this season and last season, wouldn’t get on the lads’ backs, so that win was for them. I’d like to thank them for that support, because it means so much and I think they’ve been unbelievable.

“I’ve not heard one negative from them, even when we were awful at Bromley and they have to take a lot of credit for that. I’ve always said we will do this together and we are doing.”

The victory saw City climb off the bottom of the table and above Ferriby, who they face again in the return fixture at Bootham Crescent on New Year’s Day.

It also meant the gap to a place outside the relegation zone was closed to three points and Mills added: “We’re unbeaten in three games and have won two, but should have won all of them.

“We also kept another clean sheet and 1-0 is my favourite result away from home, because it shows that sometimes all it takes is keeping a clean sheet and you can come away with what is a massive three points for us. It was an important result and it’s nice to be off the bottom and, if we can pick up another three points against Ferriby again, it would make a massive difference to how the league looks.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do and we won’t be getting carried away or over-excited, but I’ll still smile and enjoy the result.”

Mills went on to express his delight at the manner of his team’s victory at unfashionable Ferriby, reasoning: “We won the game in a different way, because the pitch was horrendous, but we played well on a difficult surface.

“It’s a horrible place to come and I’m not being disrespectful, but you can see why they have won games here because, if you’re not switched on mentally, you can get turned over. But we could have gone in three up at half-time, if not four or five and the game should have been dead and buried.

“They then had the wind and came at us in the second half, but we dealt with their long throws and put our bodies on the line. We stayed organised defensively and Aarran Racine was excellent to help us make another step towards where we want to get to.”

Mills was pleased, meanwhile, with the performance of former Premier League midfielder Simon Lappin, who earned a recall to the starting XI having missed the last five matches with calf trouble after making his debut during last month’s 4-1 defeat to Lincoln.

“I was really pleased for Simon Lappin to come in and give us 90 minutes,” the City boss confessed. “He got stronger as the game went on with his talking and organising.”

Mills revealed too that he has been given the green light to bolster his ranks if required.

“The chairman has told me I can get other players in if I need to,” he explained.

Yan Klukoswki will now be monitored ahead of this weekend’s match after being replaced early in the second half at Ferriby with a groin niggle.