United manager Russ Wilcox has urged his side to shake off any lingering disappointment from the defeat at Exeter City ahead of the final day of the season.
Despite suffering their first reverse in 29 matches against the Grecians, the Iron saw promotion back to League One confirmed after rivals Fleetwood Town were held to a solitary point by Southend United.Perhaps less critically, the defeat saw United fall behind both Chesterfield United and Rochdale in the chase for the title, with the Iron now almost certainly needing to beat York City at Glanford Park this weekend in order to keep their dreams of silverware alive.
However, Wilcox believes his side are still in with a shout of upsetting the odds, and told The Iron Player: “As I’ve said before, there’s a little bit of pressure off now.
“We’ve done the main objective of getting into that top three. It’s been a tough, tough season. There are some quality teams down here, and it shows with how tight the league has been.
“It’s been small margins and fine lines from top to bottom this year, so to achieve promotion is remarkable. It’s been the goal, without a doubt.
“There shouldn’t be any disappointment really, as we’ve achieved our target now."
The Minstermen are likely to provide a stern test for United, having produced a stunning run of form in the second half of the season which has catapulted them into the play-off positions after losing just twice since the turn of the New Year.
That run has been built on an incredible defensive resilience of keeping 13 clean sheets in their past 15 outings – and only conceding 8 times in 22 games during 2014 overall.
Such a run makes York a decent bet for their up-coming play-off challenge, and Wilcox added: “I’m pleased for York as Steve Torpey is there, so it’s great they’ve achieved that with an amazing run.
“It’s going to be all about us next week. Of course we’ll plan a few celebrations as well, because it would have been a lot of pressure going into that game still needing something for promotion.
“Obviously three points will give us the chance of winning the title, but we’ll certainly be a lot more relaxed. We want to give ourselves the best possible chance for this last game, so we’ll report in Thursday to focus on it.”
See much more from Russ Wilcox, Matt Sparrow and David Syers on The Iron Player.