NO let-up was the on-the-edge pledge by York City caretaker chief Neil Thompson.

OVERDRIVE: City's match-winner Marc Williams in a race for possession with Blackpool's Phil Thompson during the Minstermen's 1-0 win at Bootham Crescent.

City's seizure of three precious points from the nerve-jangling single-goal win over visiting Blackpool pushed the Minstermen five points clear of the Division Two trap-door into the basement.

In stretching their undefeated sequence to five games City reached the psychological boost of 50 points, aware now that half of the four relegation places have been taken up. Neither anchor outfit Macclesfield, nor second from bottom Lincoln City, can now overhaul City.

But though City are arguably one win away from safety - their points tally supplemented by the healthiest ratio of goals scored among the lower reaches - Thompson declared complacency to be off limits.

Insisting the pressure was still on, he vowed: "Until we are absolutely safe then we cannot relax for a single minute and we won't be doing so.

"Despite this result it is not over. It's just that we are another step nearer our goal."We have gone up one place in the table, but we cannot rest. We have to keep going."

Thompson conceded that last night's win, sealed by a splendid strike from Wales 'B' international Marc Williams, was hardly the best spectacle for the home fans.

"It's not going to be pretty at this stage of the season. You've got to battle and make sure you get the three points, because that's the all-important thing," he said.

"We were a bit apprehensive because of the situation we are in. We never wanted to lose our shape because we were only 1-0 up.

"We had enough chances to have won the game in the first-half, but Blackpool came back and pressed us."

Thompson added that almost as satisfying as the three points - City's third win in their last five outings - was posting their first blank-out since the 2-0 win at Oldham, three days after Christmas.

"We've been battling to do that and we almost had a clean sheet at Macclesfield.

That's been most pleasing. If you work on the right things then honesty will get you your rewards," he said.

As he looked to the final brace of games at home to Bournemouth on Saturday and then away to fellow play-off chasers Manchester City a week later Thompson added: "That doesn't faze me at all.

"As long as we can keep our belief then, with the exception of Fulham, we are as good as anything in this division on our day."

City captain Barry Jones, who was a major influence in the rearguard heroics that quelled a Blackpool revival, stressed the club was not keen to rely on results elsewhere as the battle to avoid the drop intensifies over the last ten days of the season.

"We are in the driving seat now," he enthused. "If we win all our games then we will be safe. We won't have to rely on other teams and that's the way it should be. We are up to doing the job ourselves."

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