York 1 Stanley 1

MANAGER Leam Richardson hailed Stanley’s character as they staged more stoppage-time drama to keep their survival bid heading in the right direction.

For the third game in succession, the Reds scored beyond the 90th minute, which has earned them an extra four points in the battle to beat the drop.

Without them Stanley would currently be sitting bottom of the table on goal difference.

Instead they have a two-point cushion heading into the final three games.

“I’ve been trying to instil it (character) since I was in charge,” said Richardson. “We’ve got a young group, we’ve now added a bit of experience and it shows.

“You need a bit of resilience, you need a bit of belief. The game’s 90-plus minutes so you’ve got to keep going and keep believing in what you’re doing.

“If you apply yourself properly you’ll get what your rewards and I think we’ve done that over a good period now.”

Had Peter Murphy not popped up in the fourth of five added minutes to poke in Saturday’s equaliser then second-bottom York would have leapfrogged Accy, leaving the Reds just one point and one place above the drop zone.

“At the minute it’s a huge point,” Richardson said immediately after the game.

“I think, come the end of the season, we'll realise how big a point it is.

“It wasn’t a great spectacle in the first half. We didn’t come out of the traps at all. I thought we were poor first half, we weren’t really at it.

“But a few words were said at half-time. I said ‘we’ve got to get the ball down and play a bit. We’ve got to play with a lot more energy and occupy them more’.

“They scored and it ignited us, which was disappointing because we don’t need anybody else to do something to ignite us. But today we needed that and we came out a different team.

“The only good thing to come out of the first half was that it was only 1-0, because we’ve got goals in our team. We could raise our game by 85 per cent from the first half – that’s how bad it was.

“We managed to do that, we took the game to them and dominated the second half and overall I think we deserved a point. They got deeper and deeper and I think, in the end, the pressure told.”

Amine Linganzi was left out after attending his brother’s funeral in France during the week and James Beattie came in to give Stanley an attacking line-up.

The relegation six-pointer attracted almost 4,500 to Bootham Crescent and York responded better, pegging the Reds back for most of the first half.

Stanley keeper Paul Rachubka kept them at bay during the opening stages, tipping a shot from Adam Reed over the bar before producing a similar save from the resulting corner to deny Richard Cresswell.

Poor defending allowed York’s Ashley Chambers to get through on goal but again Rachubka was equal to the shot.

A Chambers corner into the six-yard box was then cleared as far as Reed, whose 12-yard effort was cleared off the line by Murphy, and Josh Carson saw a shot blocked by Dean Winnard before blazing over.

The Reds replied with Lee Molyneux hitting a free kick too close to home keeper Michael Ingham before Stanley were caught on the break as York broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time.

The Minstermen broke forward from midfield, with Carson slipping a ball into Reed’s feet, and although his first shot was blocked by Winnard’s sliding challenge, the loose ball bounced kindly for Reed to steer the opener past Rachubka from six yards.

Richardson replaced Padraig Amond with George Miller for the second half, making a slight change to the formation, and it had the desired effect as Beattie soon headed a Murphy cross straight at Ingham.

Laurence Wilson then crossed for the ex-England striker and his deflected shot forced Ingham to turn it wide.

Rachubka stayed alert to turn away a shot by York substitute Michael Coulson, before a long Stanley ball caused havoc in the home defence.

Wilson helped it back into the box and an attempted clearance was charged down by Stanley sub Marcus Carver, who fired towards the back post, where Murphy saw a point-blank effort blocked on the line.

Despite appeals for handball, Stanley had to settle for a corner.

But deep in added time, Wilson delivered an inswinging corner from the right, Craig Lindfield’s header was blocked on the line and Murphy was on hand to stab the ball home for his first goal since September.

Murphy had to change into the number 35 shirt after suffering a bloodied nose in the first half and he whipped it off during wild celebrations in front of the travelling Stanley fans.

“I thought it was an own goal but he told me straight away it was his,” Richardson added. “We’ll take them all the same.

“Credit to Peter, he took a heavy knock in the first half, but he picked himself up, plays all sorts of positions and gives you 100 per cent.

“He probably deserves that for how he’s played this year so I’m made up for him.”

Stanley: Rachubka 8, Murphy 7, Winnard 7, Aldred 7, Wilson 7, Boco 7 (Lindfield 78), Joyce 7, Molyneux 7, Hatfield 7 (Carver 78), Beattie 7, Amond 6 (Miller 46). Not used: Clark, Gray, Liddle, Dunbavin.