York City boss Gary Mills ready to face familiar foe at Wembley (From York Press)

York City boss Gary Mills ready to face familiar foe at Wembley

12:32pm Thursday 10th May 2012 in News By Dave Flett, Sports reporter

YORK City and Newport County are by no means strangers as they head into the FA Trophy final at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.

The two sides’ involvement in the knockout competition meant both of the Blue Square Bet Premier fixtures between the two sides were only played last month.

In Wales, Nat Jarvis gave County the lead and Romone Rose grabbed the winning goal on 70 minutes after Paddy McLaughlin had levelled before the break.

For the return fixture at Bootham Crescent, Jarvis again opened the scoring in the fourth minute before City rallied during the second period to earn a point through Jason Walker’s equaliser.

Minstermen boss Gary Mills believes his side can now win this weekend’s third meeting between the two teams by being as positive as they were in the final 45 minutes of the home encounter.

He said: “The game in Newport was a poor match and could have gone either way. A draw would have probably been a fair result.

“At our place, it was a game of two halves. We didn’t start very well but showed Newport what we are all about after the break.

“We need to do that over 90 minutes on Saturday. Their main strength against us was trying to stop us playing.

“They worked hard at that and we have to make sure we are brave enough to play our own game without anything fazing us. If we do that, we will win the game.

“We won’t change the way we play. We only play one way and the pitch is made for how I want my teams to play. Both teams will have learned something about each other but it will all be about who wants it the most and who can handle the day, while making no mistakes and expressing themselves.”

Mills added, meanwhile, that he had not identified any Newport players during the course of the two matches that he felt posed his side a considerable threat.

“That’s not being disrespectful,” he reasoned. “I’m just not the sort of manager who takes a lot of note of the opposition.

“People ask me about other teams but I can’t really tell them much. I prefer to concentrate on my own side and what we are all about.

“I can tell anybody all about my players and what they are good at. I just want them to show that on the day now.”