DAN Batty feels as though York City’s late defeat to Dorking Wanderers on Tuesday night was a tough result to take.

It took a rare moment of quality from winger Tom Blair to seal victory for Marc White’s side, with York ruing their missed chances in front of goal in a match that had all the hallmarks of two teams flirting with the drop.

Batty made his first start for the Minstermen since sustaining a knee injury in their 2-2 draw with Bromley in October, gaining more vital game time following his six-minute cameo in City’s last-gasp victory at Southend United on Saturday.

And he was delighted to be back in Neal Ardley’s starting line-up after a four-month spell on the sidelines.

“It was a frustrating time out,” he told the club. “It was nice to get out there and get a start.

“It was just one of them that wasn’t going, so it was a frustrating time out. But the lads dug deep whilst I was out, we went on good runs and we were unbeaten.

“I think we need to get some more wins on the board now as the time’s coming, but I think if we keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll do well.”

Having forced consecutive saves from Harrison Male inside the opening two minutes, York had to wait until just after the hour for their best chance in front of goal, but substitute Will Davies saw his fierce strike cannon back off the right-hand post just minutes after being introduced into the action.

Dorking had offered little by the way of attacks themselves, with George Sykes-Kenworthy only making one save before being left helpless to stop Blair’s long-range strike, which crashed off the underside of the crossbar before flying into the back of the net with six minutes remaining.

And Batty conceded: "It's a tough one to take.

"I think that we had some good chances in the first half and that we should have snatched a couple of goals, which could have possibly made it a different game.

“They’ve had a couple of shots during the game but that’s about it. Luckily for them, one of them has flown in.

“In the final third, I think that we needed a little bit more composure, a bit more quality, and if we get a few more goals in there, I think that it’s a different game.

“On a different day I think it could have been a different result, but tonight it just wasn’t our game."

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As for what Ardley told his players in the 20 minutes that he spent with them following the match’s conclusion, Batty revealed:

“He said that we know we need to take our chances, we now just need to knuckle down and move on, we always bounce back from games like tonight.

“We just need to do what we’ve been doing and keep going forward.

“It’s a quiet changing room after a defeat.

“Nothing much gets said so deep down I think that we all know what we needed to do better tonight and we’ll try and take that into the next game.

“That’s one thing that you can’t complain about, every lad in this team will put a shift in. The work rate is incredible so if we can keep putting these performances together, hopefully the wins and results will come.

“Tonight was a bit unfortunate, but we’re back here, the fans have been great with us and great with me, so we need them and hopefully they will get down and support us again."