DAN BATTY relished a third victory on the bounce for York City, as the Minstermen continue to push further away from the Vanarama National League relegation zone.

A tremendous 2-1 victory over champions Chesterfield saw Batty and York rise to 16th in the National League table and five points clear of the drop zone, after three consecutive wins over promotion-chasing sides.

Goals from Maz Kouhyar and Dipo Akinyemi saw City earn a hard-fought three points, and it was another match where Batty stood out with another impressive performance.

Despite starting the match in his usual midfield position, Batty slotted into right-back following a concerning injury to defender Thierry Latty-Fairweather, who left the pitch in first-half stoppage time on a stretcher.

Batty rose to the challenge of a new position, having not played at full-back since his academy days with Hull City, and heaped praise onto his teammates after a crucial three points at the LNER Community Stadium.

“I just think that there is a team that are together,” Batty enthused.

“We’re all working really hard for each other on the pitch, we’re growing as a team and are getting stronger and stronger each week.

“The manager [Adam Hinshelwood] has come in and put a different twist on it for us and we’ve all picked it up.

“We’re taking it in our stride and trying to do what he wants, as best as we can.

“Everybody has their own different twist on how we want to play.

“In the last couple of games we have dominated the games, today in the second-half we have had to sit in and we did that as well.

“Hopefully not [at right-back versus FC Halifax Town]! There’s a few people playing out of position tonight so we all dug deep and got the result in the end.

“We’ve been drilled so that we know every position on the pitch, so when I get asked a job to do I am going to do it the best I can.

“Right-back, I haven’t played there since I was 16 and in the youth team! It was when I was first stepping up, so it is a different one.

“The first-half we looked solid and he [Dipo Akinyemi] was strong up top.

“He has been working harder over the last couple of weeks, he deserves the goals he has got in these last two games.

“If we can keep working him hard, driving forward then it will help to make the team strive in the right direction.

“We’ve had a quick look in there and we’re striding up the table.

“It’s nice to have that bit of a pathway out of there, we’ve done well with the results.

“It’s especially (good) with the three teams we have just come up against, we’ve raised our standards to match them and more. We’ve picked up some good results.”

Batty also looked ahead to the Yorkshire derby with FC Halifax Town on Monday (3pm), as City look to build upon a victory over the National League champions at the Shay.

Due to the fragility of the pitch in recent times for Halifax, Batty hopes that the match won’t be in doubt, also taking the time to credit an incredible turnout from supporters, with a record-breaking 7,571 fans in the ground, the largest since York’s play-off final with Boston United in 2022.

It was also City’s largest attendance since hosting Hull City in 2003, which was a crowd of 7,923 at Bootham Crescent.

Batty continued: “I’ve seen a few pictures, so we’ll see! Hopefully the weather keeps off so we have a game.

“Today the fans got behind us, they were at it all the way through the game so we can’t complain about that.

“They enjoyed it and we enjoyed playing in front of it.”