By Gareth Davies

BOSS John Askey says that it was ‘vital’ his team defeated Worthing to keep themselves in the National League South title race.

But after goals from Will Dean and Luke Jephcott helped City to a 2-1 win, the Tinners’ day got even better with both Dorking and Torquay dropping points at St Albans and home to Chesham respectively.

Coupled with City’s triumph, Askey’s charges now find themselves top of the pile on goal difference, ahead of the defeated Rebels, with four games to play.

“It was vital that we got a win today to stay in it,” Askey said at full-time. “They’ve worked really hard today, the players, but a dubious decision gave (Worthing) a goal and we were up against it in terms of the refereeing today.

“Despite that, we’ve pulled a result out the bag, the other results have gone our way and overall, it couldn’t have gone much better.”

The TCS chief, who guided York City from Step Two via the play-offs in 2022, felt that looking down on the rest weighed heavily on Worthing’s shoulders.

Defeat was the home side’s third in their previous four games and after looking almost nailed on to win the title two weeks ago, the beaten play-off finalists from last term are no longer masters of their own destiny.

“They would always get more nervy than us because they were in top position”, he added. “If they drew, they would still be in a good position, so we knew we had to win the game. I wouldn’t say we were great, in fact we rode our luck at times, but that doesn’t matter at this stage of the season.

“When you put the effort in like the players did today, we certainly deserved the three points.”