YORK City boss Chris Brass will warn his players about a possible positive response from a Northwich Victoria club that plunged into administration this week.

Northwich travel to Bootham Crescent on Saturday knowing they are likely to face a ten-point punishment under new Conference rules.

That would place the Vics, who have drawn three and not won any of their opening seven games, on -7 points but Brass is not necessarily expecting to face a demoralised outfit.

He said: "When we knew we were close to going out of existence here, it brought us closer together as players and as a club. It can go one way or the other as you can also get internal fighting.

"It all depends on how the group of players at Northwich take it. We had enough characters to pull together and the players did all they could to make sure the club still existed."

Point deductions were not in place when administrators were appointed at Bootham Crescent in December, 2002 and Brass believes the punishment is harsh on Northwich.

But the City boss also feels a ruling had to be introduced to prevent clubs seeking administration as a solution to their financial problems.

He said: "A points deduction would have been very harsh on ourselves and I think it would still be a harsh punishment on Northwich because there are probably different circumstances for them going into administration than there were at Leicester two seasons ago.

"Leicester seemed to use it to their advantage as it meant they did not have to change their squad too much and I agree that there had to be some sort of stringent ruling in place for clubs who opt to take advantage by following that road out of trouble.

"Everybody was made fully aware what would happen at the start of the season in the event of administration and people have had enough time to get their things in order. But if it's enforced, a ten-point deduction would make it difficult for Northwich to avoid relegation and, if it's just a case of one bill dropping through the letter box that has tipped the club over the edge, I think that would be a bit tough.

"Personally, I don't want to see any club go out of business at any level. I thought the financial situation in football was becoming a bit more sensible and I don't want to see the administrators becoming common place at clubs again."

Brass also hopes that administration will provide an eventual solution to Northwich's financial problems and ensure the Cheshire club can fulfil their league fixtures until the end of the season.

Should the Vics cease trading and drop out of the Conference, that could render all their matches - including Saturday's game at Bootham Crescent - meaningless and Brass said: "That could lead to real confusion in the table. I remember when I was at Burnley and we dropped from second to fourth when Maidstone went out of business because of losing points. It was a strange situation although it ended OK eventually because we went on to win the title at York."

Updated: 10:15 Thursday, September 16, 2004