York City boss books two-night Salisbury stop on road to Wembley (From York Press)

York City boss books two-night Salisbury stop on road to Wembley

12:00pm Friday 13th January 2012 in News

GARY MILLS is taking the FA Trophy so seriously he has taken his York City squad on a three-day retreat to prepare for their second round match against Salisbury City.

The Minstermen manager has taken the unusual step of organising a two-night stay in the south, using Bournemouth’s training facilities, as he plots victory against lower ranked Blue Square Bet South opponents.

While it is commonplace for the club to take in an overnight stop when facing long drives, two nights is much rarer.

And Mills said he hopes to use the trip, for which his players departed yesterday, as a chance to take in some new surroundings.

“It’s a good five and a half to six hours (travelling),” he said. “It’s a chance to go away to a different environment, away from the training ground.

“We are using Bournemouth’s training facilities and it is different scenery – a chance to get away together for a couple of days and talk about what we are looking to do. That’s healthy.

“Credit to the chairman, he’s allowing us to do that. We are going down there for all the right reasons of preparing for 3pm on Saturday. It’s great we are able to do that. We have an extra day to recover from those six hours travelling and, if you travel on Friday, there’s no guarantee it will be that trip with the traffic.”

While Mills acknowledges that the Trophy might not be the top priority for some of the club’s supporters, he has reiterated his determination to lead his squad on a charge towards a Wembley final.

He added: “Quite a few of my players have never played there and some haven’t even been to watch a game there. It’s a chance to go and win a prestigious competition and we are ambitious to do that.

“I want everyone else to be the same. I can understand people saying it’s not the priority but, in football, you can’t pick and choose which games you want to win. You have to go and try and win everything.”

Mills is wary of a Salisbury outfit that have been indifferent in the league but reached the third round of the FA Cup, losing 3-1 at Sheffield United last weekend. He also has revenge on his mind.

“I went to Salisbury with Tamworth in the quarter-finals, I think it was the year York got to the final,” he explained. “They beat us 2-1 and I want to go back there and personally make amends with York and beat Salisbury.

“They have had a good run in the FA Cup. They reached the third round proper and knocked out a good team in Grimsby on the way. They are a full-time set-up and it’s a tricky tie. But it’s certainly one I am confident we can go and win.

“It’s away from home and our away form has been good this season.”

Mills is without striker Jason Walker, along with defenders David McGurk and Lanre Oyebanjo, through injury. But he has brought in Scott Brown and, during the week, Matthew Blinkhorn – and was delighted with last week’s centre-back pairing of Dan Parslow and Chris Smith, who kept a clean sheet at Lincoln.

“I thought they were excellent,” he said. “We have had an issue at the back where we have conceded sloppy goals. I addressed that last week. I picked a team that I thought would go and get a clean sheet. I thought Dan Parslow and Chris Smith did really well in the middle of defence.

“But tomorrow is another game. I have got to look at the situation again. We have got to start well. They are going to be closing us down and on the front foot. They will be trying to take the game to us and will step up. We have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

On the two-night stop, Sophie Hicks, City’s community and communications director, said: “We are taking the FA Trophy seriously and trying to give Gary Mills and the team every opportunity to achieve success.

“The FA Trophy is important as the income it generates as the competition progresses is greatly beneficial to the club, and would help to financially support our league campaign.”