YORK City manager Michael Morton has reflected on the Vanarama National League season, and has admitted it was a ‘tough’ campaign for the club.

Morton is targeting progression for the next campaign, after York secured mathematical survival on the final day in a 1-1 draw with Notts County.

The City manager is also expecting the division to remain as high of a quality as it did this year, with Hartlepool United, Rochdale, Ebbsfleet United and AFC Fylde all joining the fifth tier.

“We’ve had a little bit of time to reflect and look at how the season has gone. I think it’s been a tough season, there’s been a lot of things going on on the pitch and off of the pitch.” Morton told the Press.

“I think in terms of us as staff, we’ve come in and have had an objective to try to keep the club up.

“If you look back at the start of the season I think a mid-table or staying in the league, we would have been happy with it because it’s been a while since we’ve been in the National League.

“Speaking to a lot of managers I think everybody knows it’s probably been one of the strongest National Leagues that we’ve seen. There’s a lot of good players who have dropped down from the football league and a lot of good managers, so I think that for a whole as a club, we’re just happy to be staying in the league.

“It’s not been easy, and we all know that, but for us it is job done and it’s something to build on from now.

“[Hartlepool] maybe not as big in structure but you’ve got to remember that they’ll have their parachute money.

“It’s already come out that Hartlepool are going to have a bigger budget than they did when they went up.

“I’m not too sure on Rochdale’s situation, but they’re another big club if you look at their squad, if they can hold on to the majority of their squad then they’re going to be a strong side and in and around it.

“But you’ve also got the other clubs who have been progressing really well, and all the teams in the play-offs.

“You look at the play-offs so far and it’s been so exciting, they were minutes away from Notts County going out. It’s not just that, there’s the teams that are in and around the play-offs, they’ve all strengthened, the budgets are getting bigger, we’ve been trying to speak to some players but with the clubs that are around, we can’t really afford that at this moment in time.

“I think it’s going to be very similar strength wise, obviously Chesterfield I think will be up there. Depending on whose going up, for me I’m hoping Notts County go up because they deserve it with the season they’ve had, but you never know in these play-off games.

“I think it won’t be too dissimilar in terms of this season, moving forward now I think it’s as strong as the football league.”

Morton is hoping to improve on a 19th place finish this season, no matter who owns the club.

“For us it’s just about improving on what we’ve done.

“There’s a lot of situations that we’ve got to look at, we don’t know what the club is going to look like in six, seven weeks.

“We’ve got some plans if Glen [Henderson, majority shareholder] and the Trust are still running the club, we know what the plan is around that and again it’s just progressing on that.

“But if there is a takeover at any point, then that could change anything. The main thing there is, and this is behind-the-scenes and on the pitch, it’s just making sure that we improve on what we’ve done now.

“If you look at the league, if you’re anywhere around mid-table then you’ve got an opportunity to go into the play-offs.

“For us it’s if we can build a side and be a little more consistent to be around that mid-table, but somewhere within touching distance of the play-offs, it would be a great spot for York if we’re going off of the structure that we’ve got right now.”