ON March 12 of this year, York City dropped to a disastrous 6-1 defeat to Altrincham, which caused outrage with the Minstermen looking doomed for relegation back into regional football.

Fast forward over eight months, York are now top of the table in that very same division, with the same man at the helm in Adam Hinshelwood.

Hinshelwood now must return to a place where he felt City hit their lowest, hoping to defend their lead at the top against an Altrincham side that have been known to cause York issues over the years.

Reflecting on that harrowing night for the club, Hinshelwood admitted: “It was a very tough, tough evening.

“We know that tomorrow will be the same, but we don’t need to tell the lads that come with us about how tough of a place it is to come.

“Going over to applaud the fans after wasn’t particularly pleasing, so we want to sort of forget that memory by making it a more pleasant one tomorrow night.

“It was a pivotal moment to be honest, we didn’t feel like we could get any lower than that performance.

“There was lots of disgruntled and unhappy fans coming to watch, and rightly so for what they were seeing.

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“For us to respond like we did and go on the run like we did after that, it was really pleasing.

“No one, not even ourselves, saw it coming.

“The big moment was Aldershot after that, winning, we probably needed to have a real humbling like that for us to come out fighting and show a bit more of what we are about.

“Obviously it was a tough evening, but you’ve got to move on in football.

“It’s another game and we want to come up with three points if we can, I’m sure that Altrincham will be doing all that they can to try and get three points as well.

“It’s not something that we look or delve too much into, maybe when we go back and experience the dressing room again, some memories might come back that we didn’t want!

“It’s about trying to create some fresh memories there, and we definitely won’t prolong it too much.

“I think it’s a different team to the one we turned up with there last year, and we’ll be fully focused on improving from our last game.”

Altrincham currently find themselves in tenth position, having managed 27 points from 19 matches, and suffering just two defeats in their previous 11 National League matches.

Hinshelwood confessed his admiration for Altrincham for their style of play and manager Phil Parkinson, with the Robins becoming something of a hallmark of the fifth tier in recent years.

“Nothing but admiration for how the club is run there.

“It’s a similar sort of style, they like to dominate the ball, have lots of possession, press high and have lots of energy in their team.

“It’s got all of the makings of a good game, it’s a tough place to go and we know about their game plan.

“We’ll pay them full respect like we do every opposition, it’s a really tough game for us and we know that we will have to be at our best to get anything from it.

“That’s the challenge now, we’ve got to find that bit of consistency again and make it the norm for us to start winning games of football again.

Hinshelwood also looks forward to locking horns with Parkinson again, telling the Press: “I’ve only met him once and he’s a really good guy, he does an unbelievable job at Altrincham and I’ve got nothing but respect for him.

“After the scoreline he had against me, it was probably why he was so happy and cheerful!

“He seems like a really good footballing person and I’m looking forward to going up against him tomorrow and having a good chat with him after.”