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GARY Mills has called for calmness ahead of back-to-back home games at Bootham Crescent.

The Minstermen entertain high-flying Gillingham tonight and then play host to a Barnet team at the opposite end of the table on Saturday.

But, following a run of six games without a win which has culminated in back-to-back heavy defeats against Morecambe (4-1) and Wycombe (4-0), Mills is appealing for supporters, who witnessed the club tumble out of the Football League in 2004 after failing to win any of their last 20 games, not to fret by drawing comparisons with the current situation.

Correcting a comment he made in the aftermath of the Adams Park defeat, Mills insisted: “We’re not in a mess.

“We’ve lost a couple of matches but we’re not bottom of the League. We are seven points above the relegation zone.

“People have got to calm down a little bit. If we pick up three points tonight, we will be close to the top half of the table.

“That’s the position we are in. We could move up four places and be ten points clear of the bottom two if we beat Gillingham.

“A lot of people are talking about Wycombe doing well, and yes they are on a good run, but if we had beaten them on Saturday, we would have gone above them.

“That’s how tight it still is and it’s all about us winning the next game, not worrying about what happened nine years ago or about playing against Barnet on Saturday. We’ve got to look at beating Gillingham, not backwards or anything beyond.”

Mills admitted, however, that his comments must now be supported by winning performances on the field.

“I can’t reassure people with words,” he confessed. “Anybody can talk the talk but you’ve got to walk the walk and back up the words with actions.

“We’ve got to go and get results and do our talking on the field. We’ve not won enough football matches of late and have got to make sure we start winning again.”

Last season’s two-time Wembley winner Mills went on to add that he would not be walking away from the job despite far from constructive criticism from one travelling fan at Wycombe.

“When I went over to clap the fans on Saturday, one supporter stuck two fingers up at me and told me what that meant but I won’t be doing that,” the City manager said with defiance.