MICKY CUMMINS is confident York City players will be able to put the "missed opportunity" of the last two games behind them for the trip to Alfreton Town on Saturday.

In the past six days, York were held to a 1-1 draw against Curzon Ashton before falling to a 4-1 defeat to Hereford on Tuesday night, both at Bootham Crescent.

To compound the frustration, the Minstermen's closest National League North rivals King's Lynn Town had one game postponed and drew the other.

Emotions ran high after the Hereford game, and the club report two players were threatened outside the ground.

Had York taken maximum points against Curzon - who had nine points from 16 away games all season before Saturday - and the Bulls - who had won just once since October 12 - they would be seven points clear now.

"I wouldn't go as far as saying it's end-of-the-season disappointment but we know it was a massively missed opportunity," Cummins admitted.

"Two home games and we dropped five points. We could have extended that gap and put pressure on the teams around us.

"They know and we know it wasn't good enough. We've shown better than that in the past and we need to improve, certainly in the last nine games.

"In terms of (the players') mood, obviously low. They're trying to soul-search and figure out what went wrong and how to put it right.

"Their attitude, approach and application in training was the response you'd expect.

"We're ready now and we know we need to put games to bed, get back to being defensively strong and scoring goals at the other end."

It was put to Cummins that York sides in the past have struggled to get over similarly disappointing results.

Eight of the starting 10 outfield players from Tuesday evening have featured in previous City teams, but the assistant manager believes circumstances have changed since then.

"That's in the history books," he said. "It's different styles, we're asking them to play a different way.

"We've got a lot more to come in. There are players who have come off the bench and done really well and there's an opportunity to get McNulty back in as a leader on the pitch.

"We know what they're capable of and we know we haven't reached that in the last two games.

"We've got to go to Alfreton, be on the front foot. They've got to come out and play us so we've got to exploit our strengths and their weaknesses and get a positive result.

"You look back after the game at the other results and you do see it as a missed opportunity but we can only affect what goes on in our changing room.

"We need to rectify that. We have suffered in the past and bounced back. That's where we need to be at. We need to respond in a positive manner and get the results that are desperately needed."

In an often end-to-end game against Hereford, the visitors stunned York with two goals inside the opening quarter of an hour from Kelsey Mooney and Lenell John-Lewis.

Alex Kempster pulled one back for York, who had just had a Jordan Burrow strike disallowed.

After the break, a Kieran Green header rebounded off the post and was collected near the goalline, which Green was convinced the ball had crossed.

But the hosts' defence proved their undoing and Jevan Anderson netted a third from inside the six-yard area following a corner. John-Lewis slammed in the fourth, making the Bulls' conversion rate four goals from four shots on target.

"We created quite a lot but our management without the ball needed to be better," Cummins reflected.

"It was very open, like a basketball game at times - you attack, we attack.

"In past games, regardless of personnel, we've been solid and controlled the tempo and flow. I think that was certainly missing the other evening."