Martin Hardy: Gary Mills ensures that rejuvenated York City have bright future

Life Beyond the Premier League: The Conference Premier, as Mills repeatedly asserts, is one of the hardest divisions to get out of

Gary Mills (GETTY IMAGES)

Gary Mills checked his watch. Twenty past 10. He was on the training ground. It was his first day. The problem, and indeed the reason for the demise of York City, was in front of him. Ten minutes before his first session and some of his players hadn't even turned up.

"They would drive for an hour, get here at 25 past 10 and start playing football," he tells me. "It was no wonder they were getting injured."

It is a tale he uses to exemplify the malaise that can happen at any football club, but especially one that has fallen out of the Football League, where it had been a member for 75 years. This Saturday, at Bootham Crescent, York, rejuvenated and with wind back in their sails, will face AFC Wimbledon in the first round proper of the FA Cup. There will be reminders of the fall and rise of Wimbledon, who famously lifted the trophy in 1988, whenever they step out in the competition. Their opponents' is less well known.

York City slipped out of the 92 club in 2004. The Conference Premier, as Mills repeatedly asserts, is one of the hardest divisions to get out of. "It's full of former league clubs desperate to get back in the Football League." He has a point. Luton, Wrexham and Grimsby are currently in play-off positions. Mansfield, Macclesfield and Stockport are mid-table. Cambridge United and Lincoln are looking over their shoulder at the wrong end of the table.

From that start (on the training ground), and with that calibre of opposition, Mills had to rebuild a football club. To do that, he had to rebuild the confidence of a city.

"I could feel and smell the desperation," he adds. "People told me it had been eight years of hell. They thought they were never going to get back into the league. "It was important I didn't get sucked into that. We put a barrier up to that and we got everyone on to our side. We made people smile again and enjoy being at the club. "

Mills had a pretty strong CV in his corner to inspire his players. He was the youngest member of the Nottingham Forest side who lifted the European Cup in 1980, but it was the slow, assured progress of his managerial career that told everyone at York he was in it for the long haul. Mills, now 50, had started in management in 1996 with Grantham Town in the Southern Football League, where he led them to the Midland League title. He did well at Tamworth, coached at Coventry and managed Notts County before going to Alfreton and then back to Tamworth, whom he led back into the Conference (in a season when he won Conference Manager of the Year).

That was in 2010 when York City, in dire need of energy and hope, called.

It had been a rough decade. York were put up for sale by then chairman Douglas Craig in 2001. Team B&Q racing owner John Batchelor came forward and took over. He promised the club would purchase the ground and give the York City trust almost a quarter of the shares. The promises went undelivered. York fell into administration. The supporters did eventually take control in 2003 (only to lose 20 games on the trot and fall into non-league football). By then the McGill family had emerged to take the helm and endure those eight years of hell that Mills talks of, chairman Jason and his sister/director Sophie. There were the Nestlé years, when Bootham Crescent was renamed KitKat Crescent. The break they really cherished kept slipping through their fingers. They lost the 2009 FA Trophy final at Wembley, lost at the same venue the following season in the Conference play-off. They were becoming the nearly men. Then came Mills and a lease of life all clubs occasionally need. York made it back to Wembley twice last season. This time they were winners, beating Newport in the FA Trophy and sealing their return to the Football League with victory against Luton.

"I'm very proud of what we have achieved here. I won the European Cup with Forest and a few people have asked me what is my greatest moment. Mine was when the final whistle went against Wembley at Luton. "

The City of York council granted permission for a new ground to be built in the same week the football team was winning twice at Wembley. Saturday's draw at Southend put them within two points of fifth place. Are players still late?

"No, they get fined for that now."