RUSS WILCOX could not hide his pride after ten-man York City strengthened their chances of Football League survival by dragging Mansfield Town further in to the mire at Field Mill.

After York had taken a stunning two-goal lead through Keith Lowe and Shaq Coulthirst, Wilcox must have feared the worst when goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik was red carded for handling outside the box just after half an hour.

Mansfield, who are seven points above the relegation zone, could not find a reaction to claw themselves back inn to the fixture and the Minstermen took further control.

Jake Hyde extended York’s lead after the break and, after Matt Rhead had pulled a goal back, Coulthirst added his second to complete the victory which leaves Wilcox’s men three points above the Conference trapdoor.

Wilcox told The York Press said: “To lose Bobby and play with ten me for an hour at an intimidating place like Mansfield and then score two more goals is a tremendous away performance.

“There were a few nervous moments at 3-1 because we are York City and we don’t ever do anything easy but we showed great commitment and organisation to complete a terrific job.”

York: Olejnik; McCombe, Lowe, Winfield, Halliday, Summerfield, Penn (Ingham 33), Carson, Platt, Coulthirst (Miller 90), Hyde (O’Hanlon 73). Subs (not used): McCoy, Ilesanmi, Montrose, Meikle.

GARY MILLS has challenged his Gateshead players to win all six of their remaining Vanarama Conference matches to revive hopes of a play-off spot.

The Heed’s hopes of a top five spot suffered a further dent at the International Stadium when they lost 3-2 to promotion rivals Endsleigh.

It means that Gateshead are now eight points shy of a play-off place and have been leapfrogged by the Hampshire side which defeated them on Tyneside soil.

Mills, whose side face out of sorts Dartford on Tuesday, said: “We’ve got six games left and we want to win all six. We’ve got some tough ones but we will keep going and we’ll see what it brings.

“We want to come back with three points against Dartford and we want to finish as high as we can.”

Gateshead initially brought hope when James Constable’s 25th minute opener for the visitors was cancelled out by Michael Rankine’s header from Craig Baxter’s delivery.

Craig McAllister, however, put Eastleigh back in front with 16 minutes remaining before Constable added his second with seven minutes to go. Gateshead grabbed a second in stoppage-time through Jon Shaw’s header but the damage was already done.

Gateshead: Dixon; Baxter (Orrell 79), Curtis, Gjokaj, Pattison, Shaw, Chandler, Ramshaw, Rodman (Sainte-Luce 79), Rankine, Finnigan. Subs (not used): Wilson, Morse, Allan.