York defeated Solihull Moors 2-0 on Saturday to reach 93 points for the season, with just one match left to play before the play-off campaign gets underway.
Despite three points for City, a 4-0 win for Barnet over Aldershot Town meant that it was mathematically now impossible for the Minstermen to catch their title rivals, meaning that the Bees will be playing Football League next season.
Should York wish to join them, they will have to compete and win in the play-off stages, having confirmed a second-placed finish and a home semi-final, to take place on Tuesday, May 20.
John, who scored his first goal for City in that win over Solihull Moors, expressed his ‘joy’ in playing for Adam Hinshelwood’s side and accepted the tag of being favourites for the play-offs, due to the club’s impressive campaign.
“It’s a joy to play for this team. Every player to a man is so good to play with, and the gaffer gives us a great game plan every week,” John enthused after the win.
“To play under him, it’s been a special season. I can’t wait for the season to keep going, and hopefully we can end it on a positive.
“Over the course of the season we’ve shown how good we are, and if that makes us favourites, then that makes us favourites.
“As a squad and as a collective we have just got to stay humble and take it each game at a time, wherever it takes us, it takes us.
“We’ve just got to stay grounded and take each game as it comes, we’ve got to finish the season off strong, get as many points as possible and go from there.
“It’s somewhere where we want to get back to. Not just for myself personally, but for the club.
“The club deserves to be back there and we’re going to do as much as we can to make sure we get back there.
“It would be a great, great achievement for the club, the fans, the staff, the players to get back there.”
John’s first goal in York colours came just three minutes into the contest, after stand-in right-back Malachi Fagan-Walcott surged into the area and found his teammate in space.
The left-back slid a strike past Laurie Walker for an early advantage, in what was his first competitive goal in front of a crowd in 1,967 days, when John was representing Doncaster Rovers.
John admitted that it shouldn’t have been such a long time between his last goal, laughing: “It’s been a long time coming! Especially as of late, I’ve been in good positions to get a goal. It’s great to get a goal for the club.
“To be fair I’ve had a few chances this year that I’ve probably squandered, especially Dagenham at home, I missed from five yards.
“To this day, I still can’t believe I missed from there. To get it over the line now is just perfect.
“[The last time John scored was] probably in my Doncaster days I think, it was a long time ago.
“I’ve been waiting for that goal so for it come now, I’m just glad that I’ve finally got one and am off of the mark now.
“MK Dons at home, it was 1-1, it’s been a long time.
“The gaffer gives us so much flexibility and fluidity, so Ty [Sinclair] and I switched.
“I was just in the right place at the right time and I managed to set myself to score.
“It’s just through the system and how we played that I managed to be there, so I’m glad that I got it over the line.”
Another three points for York was aided by another clean sheet too, taking the tally for the season to 20, the joint highest in the National League.
It’s no surprise to John who spoke with great pride for his defensive teammates, with the City left-back wanting to add to that tally on the final day trip to Eastleigh.
“It was very good today, we were very dominant today,” he continued.
“Going forward and defensively we were fine, and today just shows how much confidence we have got in each other.
“The subs came on and made an impact as well, which is always a good sign. Going into these play-offs now we’ve got to keep the momentum as it’s vital.
“As a team and especially as a back four, with Harrison [Male] a back five, we really wanted to get that 20th clean sheet.
“We owed it to ourselves this year as we have been so good defensively, and the last few games I feel like we’ve let ourselves down a little.
“To not have those clean sheets when we’ve been in the positions where we could have.
“To get it over the line now is great and 20 clean sheets for the season is such an impressive total.
“There’s one more game to go, so let’s get to 21.”
