York best for boss McNamara

The Minstermen avoided being relegated from the Football League last night by humbling Paul Cook’s men at Bootham Crescent.

Instead they remain in League Two by a thread as they battle to prevent what surely is the inevitable.

Goals from Bradley Fewster, Lewis Alessandra and Luke Summerfield gave the hosts a fully-deserved win, with Gareth Evans grabbing a consolation for Pompey.

Newport – the only team the Minstermen can now catch – are nine points ahead, meaning McNamara’s side must win their remaining three matches and hope the Welsh club lose theirs.

Yet McNamara was rightly delighted with last night’s showing.

He said: ‘All three goals were fantastic, as was our passing and movement.

‘The players did everything I asked of them and it was the best performance since I’ve been here.

‘It’s frustrating because you obviously always want that level of performance and then we wouldn’t be in the position we are in.

‘I know it’s in them but, maybe, the pressure was off a bit and that helped them mentally because the players’ mindsets have been the big problem all season.

‘It’s important not to get carried away with one result and I won’t be jumping around because the game will not define our season as is quite clear, but we won, got three points and entertained the fans, so it was enjoyable and better for everybody all round.

‘There’s no reason why we can’t repeat this performance. Momentum is a big thing in football.

‘We need to bottle this performance and let it out in every game.

‘If we do our jobs, then we can just see what happens and, if you told me now, we could go into the last game at Morecambe needing a lot of goals to stay up, then I would bite your hand off for that chance.’

York were full value for their win, while Cook’s side can now bid farewell to automatic promotion following a second defeat in a row.

And McNamara felt his team could have scored more than the three they managed.

He added: ‘We’ve had good displays before and not taken advantage of situations.

‘I’ve been saying for a while somebody was going to get a hiding and it could have been this game because we might have had three or four more goals.’