JOSH Law has admitted York City’s players must accept stick from the Bootham Crescent faithful if they are not meeting the required standards.

The Minstermen remain the lowest-ranked professional club in English football, as they sit 17th in National League North ahead of this weekend’s home clash against third-bottom Ashton United.

City were booed off on Tuesday night by sections of the hosts crowd after surrendering a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 against a Hereford side, who went into the match with the division’s second-worst away record but subsequently leapfrogged their opponents in the league table.

Law conceded that he understood such sentiments and appreciates that nothing short of victory will be deemed acceptable again when Ashton arrive in North Yorkshire.

“We’re a big, full-time club, who shouldn’t be where we are, so we need to be grown men and, when we rightly get a bit of stick, we have to take it, because we just need to get these games won to climb up the table,” the 29-year-old utility man reasoned.

Law went on to suggest that the Hereford loss was symptomatic of a campaign in which too many chances have gone begging and second-half collapses have been commonplace, declaring that both frailties need addressing.

“Everyone was massively down (after Tuesday’s game) because, at 1-0, we looked really comfy for an hour – probably more so than we have done all season,” Law said. “But, then, it was the story of our season really in that we didn’t kill the game off and then capitulated a little bit.

“When that second and third opportunity doesn’t go in, you know the opposition might get half a chance but, if they equalise, we’ve just got to pick ourselves up again. It felt like ‘here we go again’ and, while we are all sick of hearing it, we have got to dust ourselves down before the next game.”

Law has now started three of Steve Watson’s four matches at the Minstermen helm and is an immediate admirer of the former Gateshead chief’s upfront personality, adding: “He’s got over what he wants from the team and he’s honest.

“He’ll tell you as it is if you go and see him and there’s nothing behind your back.”

Law has kicked off the last two matches as an anchoring midfielder in Watson’s favoured 3-5-2 formation, before injuries to Hamza Bencherif and Dan Parslow have seen him drop into a central-defensive role – a duty he is prepared to carry out from the start if required.

“I’ve played there a few times in the past and feel comfortable there,” he reasoned. “It’s a new system that the gaffer would have ideally liked to work on a bit more but, if we don’t change it against Ashton, it’s a good one if we can get it going.”