STEVE WATSON has insisted that wants to finish the job of seeing York City promoted to "where they should be".

York suffered a 2-0 defeat to Altrincham in the semi-finals of their Vanarama National League North play-offs at the weekend, ending their hopes of returning to the National League.

City had been at the top of the table for large parts of the season before the coronavirus struck, with King's Lynn instead automatically going up on points-per-game.

Despite admitting to being devastated by the result, Watson put the defeat in some perspective having had back-to-back relegations and two mid-table finishes prior to his arrival.

“Let’s get is right, when I came here, we’d had four terrible years as a club," he said. “My aim was to be in and around the right end of the league at the end of the season and pushing for promotion and we’ve done that.

“For many reasons, we haven’t finished the job but that (goal) is still exactly what I have got in my head. I want to take the club back to where it should be.

“I think because of today’s result and the fact that we didn’t go up on points-per-game, I don’t think that we can lose the fact that we’ve had a really good season - the best season that we’ve had for a long time.

“We’re going in right way and people have to got to get along with that.

"There are a lot of mentality changes that I’d like to try and do, not just from the players and staff but from the crowd side of things (too). I think there needs to be a little bit of a shift in terms of positivity and really getting behind each other.

“Hopefully what we’ve done this season has made people believe again.

“I came here to do a job and it’s going to take another season unfortunately.

“Do I think that we’d have won the league if we’d have finished the season off? Yeah definitely. But we’re not going to get anything for that now.

“We are where we are. I’m absolutely devastated but I want to finish the job definitely."

At present, York have just three players under contract for next season, though Watson said that he is not the type of manager that wants to have an overhaul in his squad every season.

On his recruitment plans, he said: “It will have changed a little bit because for there are going to be lot of players, because of the situation, who would probably have become available, will have decided to stay at their club because they wanted a bit of security over this spell.

“I’ve certainly got an idea of a squad that I know can get us out of this league next season and can keep us going as well.

“I don’t want to be someone that overhauls their squad every year.

“We’ve got good young players here who we’ll try and keep hold of. The likes of Greeny (Kieran Green), Kempy (Alex Kempster), Harry Spratt and Josh King are all going to become very good footballers alongside with the lads who had done great this season.

“I think that there’s a lot of good players in this squad.

“I know for a fact that there a people that will give them (the players) a call and give them offers.

“I know that they all love playing here and that they want to play for me.

“I’m confident that I’ll be able to keep the ones that I can."

On his budget for next term, Watson added: “That’s not been discussed yet.

"It’s going to be a shorter season but I don’t know how that will affect the budget.

“They’re all conversations that we haven’t had yet but they’ll have to happen very quickly."