LEFT-BACK David Ferguson has insisted that underfire manager Martin Gray will win promotion from National League North with York City.

Gray’s team now only stand a rank outsiders’ chance of making this season’s play-offs, but Ferguson reckons, if the club’s hierarchy keep faith in the former Sunderland midfielder, he will deliver success.

The England C international was a member of the Darlington team that Gray guided to a top-five finish last season.

That side were prevented from participating in the play-offs due to their inadequate ground facilities after Gray had previously taken the Quakers up three divisions.

It is a record that ex-Blackpool defender Ferguson feels will see him turn the corner with City, despite the 46-year-old chief having been subjected to loud chants of “Gray Out” and “Martin Gray, Get Out of Our Club” following last weekend’s defeat to ten-man Gainsborough.

“Every single player is hurt when you see fans’ expressions like we have done,” Ferguson admitted. “Some of it has been directed at the manager, but we have to do better on the pitch and that will help in terms of the fans’ feelings towards him.

“I still think he’s the right man, but I think it takes time. Others might think differently, but he will get this club promotion.

“I know he’s trying as hard as he can to do everything right for this club. As players, we have to show the same commitment, desire and hunger to win, because I know he will be hurting just as much as everybody else is.”

Ferguson went on to confess that he has been left “punctured” by the run of four consecutive defeats that have all but ended the team’s top-seven hopes.

He is fully aware, though, of the importance of still delivering a result in Saturday’s final home game of the season against Leamington, adding:

“We’ve lost the last few games 1-0 and that’s been so frustrating and tough to take.

“It leaves you feeling punctured. That’s how I felt after Saturday at Gainsborough, but you’ve then got to look to Tuesday and I thought we played better at FC United.

“We’ve been creating enough chances. It’s just that final piece of something to get us a goal that has been missing. If we could have got one first, then it gives you something to hang on to, like the last three teams have done against us.

“We’ve been playing teams fighting for relegation, but we are fighting for the play-offs and losing the matches hurts so much and has affected my personal life. I want York to be as high as possible in the division, because I’m playing for the shirt and I want to achieve for my own career.

“I want to go as high as I can and I want to do that with York. I feel for the fans who have been travelling and still supporting us, so we’ve got to try and win the next two games for them.

“It’s hard to see the play-offs for us now, because we need teams to drop points, so we’ve just got to take six and, then, probably look to next season. But it’s Leamington next and the last five minutes at their place were also tough to take, because we looked comfortable at 2-0 and ended up drawing 2-2.

“Now, we’ve just got to try and stay positive ahead of the game. I know it’s going to be tough because everyone feels down after the last few weeks.

“I can feel what the fans are showing and we’ve got to keep trying and put that right. It’s our last home game of the season and many will remember that going into the summer.

“Hopefully, if we can put on a good show, that can be a memory everybody takes into the following season.”

The loss of 25-goal attacking talisman Jon Parkin has coincided with the team failing to net in each of the last four defeats, but Ferguson reasoned that the former Championship campaigner’s absence cannot be used as an excuse.

“He’s a massive miss but, at the same time, you have to deal with these situations,” the Sunderland-born, 23-year-old reasoned. “The manager puts 11 players out who he thinks can do a job.

“That’s then got to be seen in our display and that’s not been the case, so we have to question ourselves and score the goals when he’s not playing.”

Ferguson, himself, joined the Minstermen in October as Darlington’s top scorer on four goals, despite his playing position.

He has subsequently only netted once in 28 outings for City, although he has been credited by some for the own goal that secured a 1-0 win over Boston last month.

Either way, he still believes he could have helped ease the goalscoring burden on Parkin too, declaring: “It’s been difficult. I’ve probably got 1.5 goals for York, but I scored four for Darlington before coming here. Hopefully, I can try my best to score more.

“Maybe, I will be a bit more selfish, so I have to look at my performances and that situation.”

Having once earned a pro contract at then Premier League club Sunderland, scored for Blackpool in the Championship against Nottingham Forest and won three caps for his country at non-League level, Ferguson also announced that he hopes to produce better individual displays during the second season of his deal at Bootham Crescent.

“I’ve still got a lot to show the club,” he confessed. “My performances could have been better and I know what I’m capable of doing.

“I feel I can become a better player here and show the fans that.”