BRADLEY FEWSTER’S close range strike proved crucial as York City gave their survival chances a massive lift with back to back home wins for the first time since April.

Minstermen boss Jackie McNamara has stressed the importance of maintaining the momentum after his side closed the gap to safety to within a point courtesy of the 2-1 win over Notts County.

York, who climbed off the foot of League Two as well, have taken nine points from a possible 12 in front of their own fans and this time Fewster, on loan from Middlesbrough, was on the scoresheet again.

His goal arrived six minutes before half-time and built on Michael Coulson’s opener, proving enough despite an own goal from on-loan Newcastle defender Lubo Satka’s just past the hour.

McNamara said: “We know our home form is crucial. We’ve won our last two and we’ve now got our game in hand on Tuesday.

“We want to make our home stadium a fortress and it’s fantastic for the players to see the supporters right behind them, but it goes hand-in-hand with the performance on the pitch because the crowd react to that.

“I was delighted with the win and a massive three points. We spoke about how important they were before the game and I think that was reflected by the number of attacking players we had on the bench.

“We had to clear one or two off the line and Scott made a good save, but we then got a fantastic goal from Michael Coulson with a great finish and that gave us confidence. We started passing the ball and the second goal was a great team effort.

York will climb out of the bottom two if they beat visitors Exeter on Tuesday.

YORK: Flinders; Satka, Cameron, Winfield, Ilesanmi, Summerfield (Dixon 67), Penn, McEvoy (Hyde 75), Galbraith, Coulson, Fewster (Thompson 82). Subs (not used): Berrett, Carson, Riordan.

THERE was a day to forget for Gateshead when they returned from the long trip to Dover smarting from a 4-0 drubbing.

Athletic cruised into the Conference’s play-off places with a strong and commanding performance which left the men from the North-East reeling and down in 11th.

Former Heed midfielder Nicky Deverdics was on the scoresheet when he powered in a strong finish shortly after Ricky Miller had put Dover ahead from a James Curtis corner.

That meant Gateshead were 2-0 down in just after half an hour and Dover never really looked back.

Miller added his second at the end of the first half with a cool finish and then Stefan Payne completed the win before the hour when he ensured Neil Aspin’s team were condemned to a first defeat in 2016.

Gateshead had started off brightly with a couple of chances but found no way through. Had those gone in then things would have been a lot different, but Dover took control from the moment Miller got things rolling.

Gateshead: Russell; Whitmore, Curtis (Holden 61), Ramshaw, Bennett, Clark, Hamilton, Bowman, Gillies (Shaw 46), McLaughlin, Mafuta (Chandler 46). Subs: Pattison, Pearson.