YORK City boss Gary Mills refused to lambast his players despite watching their poorest performance for a “long, long time” in a 2-0 home defeat to Bromley.

The Minstermen missed out on the chance to climb out of the relegation zone for the first time since November when Louis Dennis opened the scoring after just 69 seconds and Toby Sho-Silva doubled the visitors’ advantage just before the hour.

But afterwards Mills stressed the need for his players to focus on reacting in the same manner as after their last defeat when back-to-back wins were recorded against Macclesfield and Braintree.

The next two matches will see City back on their travels with Saturday’s trip to Chester followed by a Good Friday clash at Solihull and, summing up a frustrating evening, Mills said: “We were second best all night.

“We conceded a poor goal early on when we switched off and their player got in between Alex Whittle and Sean Newton and didn’t respond to that. They responded better and got a second when the keeper came for something and didn’t get there.

“It was the poorest we have played for a long, long time and we’re all hurting after the result and performance, but we’ve got to take it on the chin. The players have been fantastic, so I won’t be lambasting them now.

“I’ve just told them they’ve worked magnificently hard to get us in this situation and we’re still only two points from getting out of the bottom four with five games to go. The last time we lost, we won the next two and we’ve got to go and do that again.”

Mills also pondered whether the chance to climb three places in the standings had taken a psychological toll after a run of five straight home victories came to an end.

“It’s difficult to know why we played like that, because the players have been performing exceptionally well,” he reasoned. “I don’t know whether the chance of getting out of the bottom four effected them, but the mental side of football is dangerous.

“I’ve not talked about that once, but the situation gets rammed down their throats and we all handle pressure differently. It’s a blow for us, but you have to get over blows.

“It looks like it might go all the way to the last game now and, at this moment, we’d probably take that.”