THERE may not have been too much of the football pundit about TS Elliott, but the poet sure knew enough about the game's most miserable 30 days.

Elliott famously decried April as the 'cruellest month'. How those words have jabbed the most jagged of knives into the flanks of the gallant men of York City. Five games in the month and just three points gathered. Not so much spring as spluttering.

But what has been even more agonising has been the dissent tumbling from the terraces, a movement of moans capped by one outrageous insult towards the end of the exasperating defeat by Exeter City which effectively garrotted the life out of City's play-off challenge.

Raging at the team's performance, the fellow with the bellow railed: "You've let the supporters down."

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Yes, it was a dispiriting display for the final home match of the season.

Yes, the chance of extending the campaign into the play-offs' annual anticipation of gratification was torn from City's grasp.

Yes, the expectation diligently constructed through a tumultuous term had thudded to the turf like a deposed despot's statue.

But in all honesty could anyone have forecast that City would be in existence come April's issue-deciding days, let alone harbouring any semblance of success? If so, they should be doing the Lottery as they would be more rapidly in the millionaire ranks than a major listening for a cough.

Considering the trauma, trials, and tribulations which have terrorised the Minstermen for the second half of the season, the players who donned those infernally-checked shirts deserve the fullest of acclaim.

This column has applauded the fans whose backing for the club in the form of the Supporters' Trust take-over, when oblivion was just minutes away, was miraculous. Those backroom employees from management to staff in the club office and shop, too, have laboured intensively to keep the club alive.

Now it's the turn of the players. They may not be the most gifted in the division, but they have given the most. Playing at times without pay, agreeing to deferment of wages, all are still owed money. How many of those fans who shoot from the lip would go to work each week without the prospect of being paid?

City players did and, in spite of losing their first-choice goalkeeper and leading scorer, managed still to fuel a play-off drive which stalled only at the penultimate obstacle.

If there is a fault with City it's in the goals column. City's goal difference is a solitary plus one, largely because they have not had a recognised scorer since the cash-dictated exit of Peter Duffield to Boston United.

Had Duffield stayed - and I understand his departure was more at the insistence of the administrators - then City would almost certainly have cemented their place in the play-off mix before the fateful visit of Exeter.

Manager Terry Dolan's acumen in loan deals solved the goalkeeping issue, but struck out at the sharp end of the team. One out of two ain't bad in such exacting circumstances. At least City are alive and still kicking.

KICKING may be what's needed for UEFA after the latest notion from Europe's rulers.

For next month's UEFA Cup and European Cup finals there is to be a 'silver' goal replacing the golden goal. Teams deadlocked at 90 minutes will play 15 minutes extra time. If either side leads after that first period then they will win.

Why not at each 30-second interval of extra time have a bronzed sniper in the stand with a golden gun firing a silver paintball at players who then have to leave the field? Or better still, why not leave well alone.

Updated: 13:03 Tuesday, April 29, 2003