YORK City manager Gary Mills has admitted usurping top two Wrexham and Fleetwood in the new year is a tall order but insists they can still be caught by his team.

The Minstermen will kick off 2012 with a home match against Mansfield tomorrow (3pm), lying 11 points behind Wrexham, who have also played a game less than their Bootham Crescent rivals.

Big-spending Fleetwood, meanwhile, are nine points ahead of City with a game in hand as well, but Mills has cited a swift change in the balance of power north of the border as inspiration for his players.

Celtic trailed Rangers by four points at the top of the Scottish Premier League table on Christmas Eve morning but are now two points clear of their bitter Glasgow rivals at the summit.

Mills set his side a 92-point target for automatic promotion last month and the Minstermen would need to win their next seven league matches to get that challenge back on track, having only taken two out of a possible nine from their last three fixtures.

But the City boss refuses to rule out the possibility of a tilt at the Blue Square Bet Premier title with 20 league games to play.

He said: “It’s important that we stay in that top five and get as close as we can to those top two again. Wrexham have a game in hand on us so we might have to make up about five matches worth of points to get above them.

“That’s a big, big ask but not impossible. First, we have to concentrate on taking three points against Mansfield and take things from there.

“Celtic are top of the Scottish Premier League now and who would have thought that just three weeks ago. These things can happen if you keep believing and play how you can play.”

The Minstermen will be forced into making at least one change tomorrow with captain Chris Smith suspended after being shown his fifth yellow card of the season during Monday’s 1-1 draw at Mansfield.

That could pave the way for Andre Boucaud’s return in midfield and, if selected, Mills is hoping the Trinidad and Tobago international will display the “unbelievable standards” he set earlier this season.

“Andre has played a big part in our season but has fallen off a little bit,” Mills said.

“He’s an excellent player – there’s no two ways about that.

“I’ve made changes because he’s possibly not been playing as well as he can but I will decide whether it’s the right time to bring him back for tomorrow’s game.

“I know what I want from him – he has set unbelievable standards for himself this season and we know he can run the show at his best.

“There’s nobody better but, for Andre to be beneficial to our team, he’s got to perform every game as ruthless as that may sound.”

A recall for Boucaud would see him reunited with Scott Kerr and Paddy McLaughlin in midfield with Mills adding he is ready to instil his faith in an attacking 4-3-3 formation again after kicking off two of the last three games with a 3-5-2 system.

The City boss said: “That last half-hour at Mansfield was more like us.

“We’ve taken the game to teams for the majority of the season and, while there’s no hiding from the fact that we haven’t played as well as we can over the last half-dozen games, I want the players to answer a few questions tomorrow.

“I’ve played five at the back a couple of times when I thought it was the right thing to do. We played well that way at Solihull but we didn’t in the first half at Mansfield so I changed it.

“We’ve got to get back to what we are good at now – putting teams on the back foot and creating chances.”

David McGurk has missed training this week with a knee problem but is expected to be fit enough to play tomorrow.