PADDY MCLAUGHLIN reacted to York City’s Vanarama National League survival after the experienced midfielder played an important role in the Minstermen’s late run of form.

McLaughlin and York suffered a 1-0 defeat to Solihull Moors with the Minstermen staying clear of the National League relegation zone on the final day, with City set for a third consecutive year in the fifth tier.

The 33-year-old has now made over 200 appearances for York, and with a big Summer ahead for the football club, McLaughlin spoke on the club’s plans to reshape the squad.

“Everybody is obviously very, very pleased that we are staying up," McLaughlin told the club media team.

“It was all done sort of last weekend so we had more of a celebration last weekend, but at the end of the day we have lost a game of football today so there is a wee bit of disappointment.

“The overriding factor and the overriding feeling is one of happiness, because we’re staying in the division.

“There wasn’t a lot in the game, the goal was a bit of misfortune for us, it nicked off of somebody and bounced straight to their lad.

“There wasn’t a lot in it, it was a strange last five minutes or so but we’re staying up, which is all that matters.

“You want to go out on a high and we’ve done so well over the last five or six weeks, we’ve put an unbelievable run together and we really wanted to go out with five wins in seven.

“Absolutely [not where York want to be], but it is. We have to be in the here and now, it would have been a disaster if the club had slipped back into the National League North, but we have had two seasons now where there has been a lot going on.

“It seems to have been chaos for the last two years, so hopefully now we have kept our head above water, last season and this season, now it’s time for some stability.

“Hopefully we can push on and challenge at the right end of the table, the end of the table where we want to be to try and get out of this division and in an upward trajectory.”

McLaughlin went on to discuss the upcoming Summer and the crunch contract and future talks that manager Adam Hinshelwood, which have been held today.

McLaughlin went on to say: “It wasn’t to be, we’ve got the Summer now and I’m sure there will be all sorts of stuff with chats about recruitment, chats about contracts and chats about next season because we will want to start next season strong.

“Every Summer is important, off-the-pitch there will be a lot of stuff going on in the Summer.

“Next year we will want to use this period of good results and good performances to build on that and really take it forward next season.

“Some people will have contracts for next season, some people won’t. There will be chats, we’re all in on Monday for discussions, conversations with the manager on next season.

“It’ll all become clearer over the next few days and people that are lucky enough to get a contract will come back all guns blazing for next season.”

One common factor throughout the campaign has been the incredible backing from supporters, something which McLaughlin is proud of, as well as the club’s resurgence following a dismal 6-1 defeat to Altrincham in March.

“They’ve been brilliant. There have been some tough days and a few good days in there as well, the overriding factor and the massive thing in this is that we are staying in the division and we have kept ourselves afloat," The midfielder enthused.

“It’s a good platform now to build on, and hopefully we can do that next season.

“It shows that we have a lot of character in the squad, people were doubting us and we have bounced back.

“We bounced back from that, it galvanised the group and we put a good run together.

“I always said that we would put a run together at some stage, I was always confident in that, and thankfully we did.”