YORK City owner Jason McGill has confessed that this teason has already surpassed his expectations.

The businessman felt a top-ten place was within the club’s grasp after an awful 2008-9 campaign, but admitted that reaching Sunday’s play-off final against Oxford has proved a huge boost for the board.

Now McGill is hoping that the wide Wembley pitch can offer Martin Foyle’s team the perfect setting in which to overcome Oxford and end the club’s six-year absence from the Football League.

He said: “Speaking to Martin prior to the season, we thought we would be a top-ten team with the players we were able to attract. It’s just been a fantastic reward to get into the play-offs.

“We have played very well tactically and defensively but, on the occasions that we have been allowed to play football, we have really shown what we can do when we get the ball on the ground.

“Hopefully, Wembley’s pit-ch will allow us to do both.”

McGill believes the key to this season’s success has been the togetherness of the squad, as well as a shift towards broadening the club’s player recruitment.

He said: “The biggest thing that strikes me about this group of players, though, is the great team spirit.

“In the past, we tried to recruit players that lived within an hour-and-a-half’s drive from York, which was fine, but we were limiting our options.

“Last summer, we decided to cast the net further to attract players from different areas.

“We didn’t want them holed up in lonely flats and the idea of a five-bedroom house so players can move in together has been a real success. I think 11 or 12 players now live in York and that has helped create a lot of camaraderie.”

Having suffered relegation from the Football League and an FA Trophy final defeat during his time in the Bootham Crescent boardroom, McGill is understandably on tenterhooks.

That anxiety has not been helped by the 13-day wait between the completion of City’s semi-final victory over Luton and the Wembley clash.

McGill said: “You go through your normal life and try and focus on work and your family because you don’t want to talk about the game too much.

“If you do, you can’t ignore the potentially monumental rewards.

“That’s when the butterflies start.”