David Holdsworth has refused to throw in the towel on Mansfield Town's hopes of reaching the Blue Square Premier play-offs.

The Stags are now eight points off the top five with nine games to go after last night's 1-0 defeat to York City.

But the Mansfield boss is remaining upbeat and will try to pick up his disappointed players ahead of Saturday's trip to Histon.

"We know that the one thing we have got in the dressing room is team spirit and we will keep going," said Holdsworth.

"Results have to go our way, but we have to make sure that if there are any slip-ups then we are there even though we are now eight points behind.

"York have been on a poor run, so they will be delighted with the three points.

"We showed a lot of nerves in the first half and at half-time I told them to go out there and take an extra touch.

"I think we showed enough in the second half performance, which was a lot better, to get a point.

"I am not going to chastise the players after the effort they showed. The fans, in the main, showed their appreciation at the end

"We are all hurting and I'm sure the fans are hurting. We will now dust ourselves down, have a chat about things, go again and try to take three points at Histon."

Holdsworth believed Mansfield did not get the rub of the green with some of the refereeing decisions.

He felt York could have had Djoumin Sangare sent off in the second period and felt the Stags should have had a penalty for a foul on Jake Speight.

Holdsworth said: "We didn't have enough to break them down and some of the decisions haven't gone our way.

"Sangare could have been sent off and the fact Martin Foyle (York's manager) took him off straight away said something.

"Jake should have had a penalty when they were tugging at him but he has almost been too honest in not going down."