“I love this club and I want to stay.”

So said York City stalwart Lenell John-Lewis, who is out-of-contract following the Minstermen’s final Vanarama National League match of the season.

John-Lewis was delighted to see York avoid relegation on the final day, despite a 1-0 defeat to Solihull Moors, with the City captain crediting the manager and the recent upturn in attitude from the squad in the final seven matches of the season.

Adam Hinshelwood is set to hold talks with all of York’s players on Monday, including those with a contract, meaning that John-Lewis’ future at the club will be discussed today.

However, John-Lewis is eager to stay with the football club that he has grown to love, and is keen to see City push on after narrowly missing out on relegation in the National League for two consecutive season.

“We’ll see. I’m out of contract, I love this club and I want to stay, it’s as simple as that,” John-Lewis declared.

“It’s interesting that in 16 or 17 years of playing, I have only actually had five clubs. This was the first loan of my whole career, coming to York, I’ve normally had two-and-a-half years at each club.

“I think this place is fantastic and this club deserves to kick on, the fans are brilliant and I think it’s fantastic.

“I’ll always hold myself to high standards and I’ll always want more, but it’s not a bad record to have.

“We have to push, that’s how I personally go into every season and it’s up to the management, the board, the chairman, everyone to see what they can do in the Summer and we’ll go from there.”

John-Lewis also reflected on City’s final match of the season at Solihull, and spoke on the shift in form since the disastrous 6-1 defeat to Altrincham which saw the York captain bravely address the media with relegation looking likely.

John-Lewis stated: “We got what we wanted at the end of the day, obviously the result isn’t what we wanted but in the grand scheme of things, it was about staying in this league. That’s what we’ve done.

“It was a weird one! It was kind of déjà vu of last season to be honest, we knew there was a massive goal swing and that would have taken us down, so we knew what we had to do to get us over the line. That was the most important thing for us.

“I think I said on that night that we had to take stock and look at ourselves to find a way, and that’s what we’ve done.

“We have come together as a group and the management and his staff have got to take massive credit, he’s got us playing in a way where we are confident and comfortable. We go into games expecting to win.

“Wins do that and when you’re playing a style of football, it is all good playing that style of football, but you have got to get goals to do that.

“That brings confidence, that brings belief and it comes with the time on the training ground.

“We have lost today [Saturday] and we’re disappointed, that’s how far we have come in such a short space of time. It’s a big off-season now and we’ll go again.

“No [heads never dropped], we knew we should have taken all three [points against FC Halifax Town] and we know we’ve scored goals previously.

"In the last seven or eight games there have been two losses, one draw and the rest are wins so these are the things you have got to take stock off.

“We’ve got to a place where we were confident and we analysed the game, we knew that we should have come out of the game [with a win].

“Coming out of that Halifax game the belief was still there, the way we were playing we were still confident that we could get that second goal.

“Like I said, in such a short space of time there has been a shift.

“I say it again but the manager and his staff have to take credit, and the players have taken it on board as well.

“We’ve done it out on the pitch, there has been a shift and we knew what we had to do to stay in this league. I’m happy that we have done.”