YORK City boss Gary Mills was left “angry and disappointed” after watching his side return to the bottom of the National League standings.

Former striker Reece Thompson scored the only goal of the game to earn North Ferriby a 1-0 win at Bootham Crescent to lift the Humberside part-timers off the foot of the table.

The defeat came just six days after the Minstermen had won by the same scoreline at Ferriby and a frustrated Mills said: “It was simply not good enough.

“We were second best to a lot of balls in the middle of the park, which we did to them at their place and, if you don’t win the second balls and dictate games, you put yourself under pressure. They looked a yard sharper and we never got going.

“We are a team that plays with tempo, but we didn’t move the ball quickly enough and a lot of players were off their game. We didn’t win our individual battles and you have to do that every week.

“I didn’t see that performance coming one little bit and it’s a little setback and a bit of a shock after what we’ve been building during the last few weeks in terms of mental strength and belief. It was a performance that won’t get us out of the situation we are in and that’s difficult for me.

“It makes me angry and disappointed because I know what we are capable of and we were nowhere near that. It was a poor day and there’s been too many of them at this club, so that has to stop.

“We were hoping to kick on from the Boxing Day result, but we haven’t. We let ourselves down and have not gone about our jobs as we should have done.

“But it’s happened and we’ve got to go to Dover on Saturday, roll up our sleeves and show that we can bounce back because, if it means we have to scrap and win ugly for the rest of our games, then so be it.”

Mills was also irritated by the fact that the result came in front of the Minstermen’s biggest crowd of the season, with 3,182 turning out for the New Year’s Day clash “I could hear the difference around the ground when I first came out, but we produced a performance that won’t bring them back,” he lamented.

Nor was the City chief impressed with the manner of defending for Thompson’s 28th-minute winner.

“It was a poor goal,” he pointed out. “We didn’t pick up the lad who scored. He pulled off and got in behind us.”

On a day of few positives, Mills did praise striker Jon Parkin, adding: “Jon worked so hard, but we didn’t have others around him to help him out. We didn’t support him enough or get the wing-backs high enough up the pitch.”