NEAL Ardley insists that York City are “giving everything” in their bid to move away from the relegation places.

Tuesday evening’s 1-0 defeat to fellow strugglers Dorking Wanderers saw Marc White’s side move level on points with the Minstermen just three points above the Vanarama National League drop zone.

Ardley had called for his team to make the LNER Community Stadium a fortress for the remainder of the campaign, but their run of three consecutive home fixtures got off to a disappointing start, with a stunning long-range effort seeing Tom Blair hand Dorking a crucial three points six minutes from time.

That was City’s fifth home defeat, with boos ringing out from the 4,000-strong support on the final whistle.

Ardley, who spent 20 minutes in the dressing room with his players after the match, conceded heads had dropped after the result, but that they were giving everything that they had got.

“It’s tough,” he admitted. “I’m going to have a couple of days to myself first. Who motivates the motivator?

“You’ve got to lift yourself up and we’ve got to get straight onto the Dagenham game, look at what they’re going to do.

“They’ve got a lot of pace and power in their team and we’ve got to make sure that we put a performance in.

“We need the support of the fans. I know that they’re angry today, but they need to just give us everything that they’ve got.

“We are trying. We’re giving everything we’ve got.

“At times it might not be pretty, and at times they can bemoan the lack of quality in the final third, but that’s the hardest part of the game.”

York have not been able to string together back-to-back wins so far this season, but Ardley believes that having lost just three of their last 15 matches, it is harsh to criticise his players' efforts on the pitch.

“You can’t say that we’re not having a right go at picking up the points that we need to,” he explained.

“I know we might have drawn six or seven of them,  but we are having a go.

“I know people are going to be disappointed, the result is going to do that, but everybody’s having a real go to try and dig us out of the mess that has taken three or four months to sort.”