GARY Mills has vowed to battle on as York City manager until told otherwise.

The former 2012 double-Wembley winner saw his side knocked out of the FA Cup 3-2 after conceding a stoppage-time Gavin Cogdon goal at eighth-tier South Shields.

Sean Newton and Jon Parkin had earlier scored twice in the space of two second-half minutes to cancel out Carl Finnigan’s penalty and a Julio Arca goal for the Evo-Stik North table-toppers.

But Cogdon’s 91st-minute winner heaped the pressure on Mills’ job following last weekend’s 2-0 defeat at National League North leaders Harrogate Town when City fans joined in home chants of “You’re Getting Sacked in the Morning.”

That result left the Minstermen 11 points behind their neighbours and second-placed Salford with only one automatic promotion place up for grabs, but Mills is in no mood to walk away from his second spell in charge at Bootham Crescent.

“I have to win football matches, because that’s what I’m here for,” Mills reasoned. “We’ve lost the last two and people have opinions.

“I understand, of course, why they have them – it comes with the situation and job I’m in. But I will be here on Monday morning, unless I’m told otherwise.

“People at the top make those types of decisions and I just get on with my job.”

A sloppy first half saw Amari Morgan-Smith make a hash of a simple first-minute chance for the visitors and keeper Jon Worsnop then conceded a ninth-minute spot kick after he hauled down Jamie Holmes having tried to dribble past the home attacker in his own box.

Arca went on to double the lead, as the 36-year-old former Sunderland and Middlesbrough midfielder escaped the attentions of his Minstermen counterparts to beat Worsnop from 15 yards.

A triple substitution at half-time saw Simon Heslop, Theo Wharton and Jassem Sukar make way for Connor Smith, Kaine Felix and Louis Almond and City got back on level terms during the final quarter-of-an-hour.

But Cogdon pounced on 91 minutes to settle the third qualifying round tie and an unhappy Mills seethed: “When you get chances you have to take them and we also gave them a two-goal start and it was horrific what Jon (Worsnop) did.

“It gave them a massive lift. Nobody tracked their player either for the second goal and we were very, very poor in the first half.

“We changed it in the second half and were a lot, lot better. We made the substitutions because we needed to change things and it worked.

“We got the two goals back and had other chances where we could have been a bit more ruthless, but we didn’t defend a corner properly in the last minute and we’ve ended up out of the Cup. We have also lost games for two weeks’ running, which hurts.”

Former Argentina under-20 international Arca starred for Shields, but Mills was also annoyed by his team’s efforts to nullify his influence on the game.

“He ran the show, but I’ve got players out there who know what their jobs are,” the City chief declared. “I know whose job it was to stop him dictating the game, but they didn’t do it.”

The Minstermen now host third-placed Brackley next weekend when sub Smith is expected to be handed a first start since his summer move from Hartlepool after impressing Mills following his introduction.

Winger Smith operated at right back – a position that Dan Parslow had filled prior to the second-half reshuffle.

But Josh Law – the normal choice for that role – might also be back for the Brackley contest after missing out in the north-east due to a groin problem, freeing Smith up to assume attacking duties.

“Connor Smith did superbly well when he came on,” Mills pointed out. “Josh (Law) was also close, but we didn’t want his problem recurring if he played and he should be fine now for next weekend.”