YORK City are hoping to lure another National League title-winner to Bootham Crescent.

A Football League midfielder has been targeted by City boss Gary Mills, who has already drafted in the likes of Cheltenham’s 2015/16 championship squad members Dan Parslow, Amari Morgan-Smith and Asa Hall.

Daniel Nti, meanwhile, has followed Derwin Martina out of the Minstermen exit door after making his final appearance in the club’s colours during Tuesday’s 2-1 reserve defeat against Hartlepool.

On his latest transfer-market move, Mills said: “He’s a Football League midfielder with a lot of experience, who has won this league and would be ideal for us until the end of the season if we can pull it off. He wouldn’t be cup-tied for the FA Trophy either.”

Following the departure of Martina, meanwhile, after one first-team game on the bench and 82 minutes for the reserves, Mills pointed out: “Derwin came into the club on a trial basis and non-contract terms.

“We gave him that opportunity, but we’ve decided not to take it any further with him.”

Mills reiterated that seven-goal, joint-top scorer Jon Parkin will play for City at Sutton United on Saturday, despite not being risked during the club’s last outing on an artificial 3G surface against Harlow due to concerns over his knees.

Having trained all week, centre-back Yan Klukowski is also available after recovering from a calf problem, leaving Mills with the dilemma of whether to recall the former Forest Green campaigner and move Sean Newton back into midfield.

“Sean is possibly playing the best football of his career and his best position is anywhere, which is great for me as a manager,” Mills reasoned. “But putting him on the left side of defence has balanced things off brilliantly for us and he’s been looking strong there as well.

“The two games those three (Parslow, Hamza Bencherif and Newton) have played together against Lincoln and Eastleigh we’ve looked really good and Yan coming back gives me a nice decision to make.”

The City chief went on to stress that keeper Kyle Letheren retains his support despite recent errors, although he added that the blunders must not keep occurring.

“Kyle was excellent at Lincoln in between making the mistakes and he knows, as a keeper, you can’t be making them on a regular basis so, hopefully, that’s the end of it,” Mills ventured. “I’m not making a major issue of it, because he’s done well for us and he’ll be in the sticks again at Sutton.”

The Minstermen trained today on the synthetic turf at PlayFootball’s Clifton Moor site and, while Mills disagrees with the use of such pitches in the professional game, he will not make them an excuse come 5pm on Saturday afternoon. “There’s no doubt playing on 3G pitches is a totally different game,” Mills argued. “Balls that would go out of play on grass don’t and the pace of the surface isn’t the same either.

“Personally, I think every game should be played on grass, because I don’t think it’s a true or proper game of football otherwise. People talk about postponements due to bad weather, but the grass pitches are so good now that I don’t think that’s a big problem.

“Ours is superb at the moment even though the rugby team are playing on it. These pitches are not what we’re used to, but I don’t make the rules and we have to get on with it by going to Sutton and giving it our best shot.

“We won’t be making it an excuse if things don’t go right for us.”

Sutton will be without suspended attacker Roarie Deacon, who received national acclaim for his performance in the team’s 2-0 FA Cup defeat against Arsenal last month.

Mills admitted that Deacon’s loss would be a blow for the Gander Green Lane outfit, but is still expecting a demanding contest.

“When you can’t play certain players, it does disrupt you, because you have your strongest XI in your mind, but they’ll have other players who can go in there and do a job,” Mills suggested. “They still need a few wins to be safe, so it will be a tough game.

“We’ve all seen them do well in cup games and they got a really good draw at Barrow at the weekend, with an unusual clean sheet, which they’re not used to.”

Elsewhere, both of City’s FA Trophy semi-final legs against Lincoln have now been made all-ticket contests.

Tickets for the first leg at Bootham Crescent on Tuesday must be purchased before 12noon on the day of the game.