YORK City boss Chris Brass has been given a specific deadline by the club's board in which to turn around his team's fortunes on the pitch.

Brass was told his time-scale for improvement at a board meeting yesterday and all four directors present at last night's York Minstermen's Fans Forum admitted for the first time that the City manager's performance was subject to an assessment period.

The length of that assessment has not been disclosed.

The Minstermen have taken three points out of a possible nine from their opening Nationwide Conference fixtures, having been relegated from the Football League without a win from their last 20 matches.

Saturday's 3-0 home defeat against Hereford provoked boos from the Bootham Crescent terraces and City's board have indicated that they are not ready to accept such poor standards of performance.

Chairman Steve Beck said: "The board think that there should be an assessment period and it has been fully discussed with Chris Brass. It's not right to reveal how long it is because that's between ourselves and Chris.

"We will be honest with the management team and they will continue to have our support but there's a time-scale in place that we will be working to."

City managing director Jason McGill has missed the start of the season because of a family holiday but admitted that he will start making his judgement of the newly-assembled team at Gravesend & Northfleet tomorrow.

He said: "I will start to make a fair assessment at Gravesend. It might turn out that we do not need to do anything but we will be taking appropriate action as we would in any business.

"This is Chris' team so we have got to give him a chance but, like anything, that goes so far."

Communications director Sophie McGill said: "We have told Chris that we were extremely disappointed after Saturday and, like all fans, it ruined our weekend. Chris Brass is a totally honest man and I can assure you these defeats are not just brushed under the carpet.

"Our aim, as a board, is to be in the top five. If we are not involved in the play-offs we would class that as being unsuccessful."

City's financial director Terry Doyle added that three games into the new season was too early to pass judgements and defended the decision to give Brass a three-year contract in January.

He said: "There were a number of reasons for the length of Chris Brass' contract. Firstly, it's a playing contract as well and he's been a very good player for the club and one we would want to keep.

"As a board, we also like to try to take long-term views. There's a lot of short-term decisions in football that don't benefit clubs.

"If you look at Dario Gradi's early record at Crewe he might not have been there long enough to achieve what he has since. It took nine years for him to win something. I am not saying we will wait that long but I'm trying to make a point.

"It's also very easy to shout sack the manager on the terraces but you have to work within employment law. Football notoriously doesn't but look at the Terry Dolan tribunal which showed it does not always work in a manner you would consider fair."

Former City manager Dolan successfully earned money from the club after a court appeal for win bonus payments made during the season after his departure.

Updated: 10:45 Friday, August 27, 2004