YORK City manager Gary Mills wants the 3,000 fans who watched Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Grimsby to keep coming to Bootham Crescent until the end of the season.

The 3,872 gate against the Mariners was City’s biggest since the 2010 play-off semi-final against Luton and Mills believes that support helped his team clinch an 86th-minute victory and can now assist his players in their quest for promotion to the Football League.

Tonight’s home match against Cambridge clashes with televised Champions League fixtures and the last time that was the case an attendance of just 2,030 turned up at Bootham Crescent for the 1-0 win over Bath.

Back-to-back home defeats may also have contributed to that fall in numbers but, with City having won their last three fixtures in front of their own fans, Mills is hoping for another big turn out.

He said: “It would be absolutely great to keep getting crowds over 3,000. The atmosphere was brilliant on Saturday and, as I’ve stated before, everybody has a part to play this season.

“The fans were superb when we went behind against Grimsby. Everybody stuck together and stayed patient waiting for the goals to come and it would really help if we can get that at every game.”

Mills is likely to field the same starting line-up for a fifth successive game with 12-goal top scorer Jason Walker having trained yesterday following the kick on his calf that caused him to be substituted during the closing stages of Saturday’s game.

The City boss added: “We’ve done well as individuals and as a team in our last four games so why complicate things? There are always one or two decisions to make, even when you’re winning matches, but I’ve felt it’s been right to pick the same team.”

With Luton hosting Wrexham tonight, a win against Cambridge would also guarantee City gain points on one, if not two, of their top-four rivals. But Mills will not be worried about results elsewhere.

He said: “We can’t worry about other games. It’s all about us winning our tough match against a lively team who are just behind us.

“If we don’t do that, then what happens elsewhere will be irrelevant.”

With old boys Adam Boyes, Craig Farrell and Levi Mackin all having scored on their returns to City this season and another ex- Minsterman Jon Shaw hitting a hat-trick against his old team at Gateshead, Mills intends to keep Michael Gash off the scoresheet.

The City chief said: “If you’ve got anything about you as a player, you always want to do well and score against your old club. He’s a Cambridge player now but it’s my job to make sure our defenders don’t give him an opportunity.”

Mills has sought clarification, meanwhile, on the club’s league standing with City locked on the same points, goal difference and goals scored as Luton.

He revealed: “I sat at home over the weekend wondering why Luton were third instead of us so I made a phone call.

“Looking at the table, it had been determined alphabetically and I didn’t think that was acceptable so I checked with the league and was told we are third because we’ve won more games than them.”