York City 4-1 AFC Wimbledon

Terry Brown pointed the finger of blame for his team's latest Bootham Crescent capitulation squarely at the club's punishing schedule.

Wimbledon's “ridiculous” run of long away trips finally caught up with them as promotion rivals York ran riot.

The Dons went down 5-0 in the same fixture last year – and the south-west Londoners waved the white flag again tonight.

Danny Parslow glanced home Ashley Chambers' free-kick to give York the lead on 16 minutes.

Wimbledon's defence was questionable again at a crucial time in first-half time added on.

The excellent James Meredith broke free of a poor offside trap to double the lead with the visitors' backline making their half-time ear bashing somewhat worse for themselves.

It seemed to have worked when Christian Jolley fired home a cracker to make it 2-1 just after the hour mark but the Minstermen didn't buckle.

Instead Michael Rankine, the clinical City striker, made it 3-1 from far out before Chambers added an excellent fourth into Seb Brown's top corner.

Manager Brown blasted: “It's a joke to ask those boys to run their hearts out, a joke.

“I am really proud of them. I am delighted with their effort but this was always one trip too far. It was too much of an ask.

“We are going to have to give them two days off now. It was difficult to watch a side with no legs, and we had nothing on the bench.

“We've done 2,000 miles recently and it was too much to hope for that we could win here after trips to Darlington, Bath, Fleetwood and Gateshead.

“It was a great game but credit to York. They were the better side and scored three great goals.”

York manager Gary Mills said: “We took advantage of their tiredness tonight but we still needed to work for it. We played some good football and it was great to put our 4-0 defeat to Southport to the back of our minds with four goals of our own.”