Without a win since New Year’s Day, York City are being forced to look over their shoulders for the first time this season.
But disaster has not yet struck. York’s solid first half of the season, when they were looking up more than down, means that the current blip has not yet dragged them into a relegation battle. Yor
k sit seven points clear of Aldershot and AFC Wimbledon, who currently occupy the relegation places.
Defeat on Saturday against lowly Barnet at Bootham Crescent made it eight league games without a win. However in fact, they remain closer to a top half finish (five points behind) than to a place in the bottom two.
As a newly promoted side, such poor runs of form are to be expected. York were a very difficult side to beat, especially away from home, in their last season in the Conference. In fact from 27th September 2012 to 19th September 2013, they went nearly twelve months without losing an away match in England (with their only defeats coming at the hands of Wrexham and Newport County). Naturally League Two is a significant step up.
But it is understandable that die-hard fans would be concerned. In 2003-4, York’s last season in the Football League before relegation to the Conference, the side sat in mid-table after the first half of the season, before a run of 20 games without victory at the end of the season saw them comfortably consigned to relegation.
It is still too early to be calling for the head of manager Gary Mills. Mills has masterminded the club’s rise from mid-table ignominy in the Conference into the Football League, along the way seeing his side triumph twice in two weeks at Wembley last year, in the FA Trophy Final and Conference Play-Off Final.
Mills has also worked well on a small budget. It is never an ideal model, and whilst Michael Coulson had a bright start, his season was curtailed by injury, while loan signings have tended to be only short-term.
Should the run of bad form continue, then obviously the situation must be reassessed. But considering the impressive efforts, both this season and last, which York City have put in, any decision to sack Mills now would definitely be in the category of ‘knee-jerk’. At a club like York, continuity is crucial and any big decisions must be made with the utmost care.