YORK City boss Billy McEwan has not set his side any new targets after entering the second half of the season.

McEwan posed his team the challenge of bettering last season's points tally and final league finish of eighth at the beginning of the campaign and that remains his chief objective.

The poor recent form of long-time Conference leaders Oxford United has given hope to the chasing pack with Dagenham and Redbridge even taking over at the top.

City are now seven points behind the Daggers but, likewise, McEwan is aware of how tight the fight for play-off places is behind his team as has been illustrated by the Minstermen's fluctuation in league position over the last eight days.

Last Friday's 1-0 home defeat at Woking saw City drop to seventh place only to climb back into third spot following the 3-1 New Year's Day victory at Morecambe.

Since then, Gravesend's 2-0 televised victory at Grays has seen the Minstermen fall a position on goals scored.

Only two points now separate Gravesend and seventh-placed Morecambe, who have a game in hand on all their play-off rivals.

Improving Stevenage, in ninth, are also only six points behind City having won six and drawn one of their last seven outings.

Some of City's high-flying rivals will inevitably drop points today with Oxford meeting Morecambe and Weymouth entertaining Burton, but McEwan is looking no further than his team's home game this afternoon against Crawley.

He said: "My goal at the start of the season was to try and beat last season's total and we are on target to do that. We are happy at the moment but football can kick you in the teeth sometimes.

"There's a long, long way to go but the signs are encouraging.

"We are not looking at what the other teams are doing though because it's all about what we do."