YORK City boss Gary Mills has instructed his players that they cannot let their standards drop by “one per cent” in the scrap for survival.

The Minstermen face Bromley tomorrow night knowing that three points will lift them out of the drop zone and up to sixth-bottom in the National League table.

With six fixtures left to play the Kent visitors are just one point short of the 50 mark, normally regarded as a safety target, but Mills insists Neil Smith’s men are still in the relegation mix and no side must be under-estimated during the vital run-in.

“We’ve got six very important games to finish the job,” Mills pointed out. “We’ve laid the foundations to give ourselves a chance and my brothers, who are in the building trade, always tell me the foundations are the most important thing.

“But now we’ve got to build the house. It’s great to have the opportunity to climb out of the bottom four, but things can’t change.

“Bromley will be looking at the situation and know, if they lose to us, we will only be four points behind them, so they will still be desperate for a result and we have to make sure we perform the same way we have been doing because, if that drops by one per cent, we’re not the same team and it takes away from what we are.”

Mills is also confident that his players can make amends for the “diabolical” 3-0 defeat City suffered at Hayes Lane against their next opponents back in November.

Only three players – the fit-again Simon Heslop, Alex Whittle and Sean Newton – are expected to start this latest meeting from those who were in the first XI during that contest, which Mills confessed provided a watershed moment during his second spell in charge of the Minstermen.

Recalling the display, he said: “It was diabolical. I remember some fans clapping us off, but there were two or three voicing their opinions and quite rightly so, because I wanted to do the same.

“It was the final straw for me after coming back, because I knew we had absolutely no chance with that group of players. Myself and Darren had to do a lot of hard work to recruit and get a lot of the right kinds of players, which we’ve done now.

“This game will now be York City Football Club playing Bromley, which you wouldn’t have known from that match a few months ago.”