YORK City fans will be gnawing fingernails tomorrow even though Terry Dolan's promotion- chasing Minstermen will not be in action.

This season's promotion race is wide open and with 12 teams in the mix for the three automatic places and four play-off spots the chase threatens to be one of the most exciting in years.

Leaders Hartlepool and second-placed Rushden and Diamonds are almost certainly out on their own in the race for the actual Division Three title but City, with just two defeats in their last 14 outings, are the form team in the chasing pack.

Two successive defeats at the start of last month left City clinging to the play-offs in hope more than expectation, but four wins from their last five undefeated games has seen the Minstermen muscle in on the automatic promotion contenders.

Given their marvellous run of form, City would no doubt have relished the opportunity to maintain their forward momentum tomorrow.

Instead, and with proposed opponents Carlisle United competing in the LDV Vans Trophy final against Bristol City on Sunday, City will be left kicking their heels which could hand the impetus to their rivals.

However, City's inactivity could also prove to be a blessing, giving the players a chance to rest their weary limbs and relax from the pressure of the run-in.

Renewed in both body and mind, when they re-enter the fray at home to Rochdale on April 12 they will do so chomping at the bit and hungry to make-up any lost ground.

Regardless, without kicking a ball third-placed City could find their position enhanced tomorrow.

Six of their fellow promotion contenders actually go head to head ensuring some teams are bound to drop points and, whatever the scores served up on Saturday, at worst City will remain in the play-off zone.

The one possible blot on the City promotion horizon remains the Minstermen's goal difference. It currently stands at plus four while all the other teams occupying the top seven positions have a difference of plus nine or better.

With the Division Three table being so tight, goal difference could be worth an extra point come the final shake-up and to make matters worse for the Minstermen the club's top scorer, Jon Parkin, will be sidelined for City's next two outings through suspension.

However, given City's current form and fortune it could be the Minstermen will have enough points on the board by May 3, the last day of the season, to make the need for calculators academic.

Blunt statistics certainly see City's credentials basking in a favourable light.

With 63 points from their 40 League outings so far, the Minstermen accrue 1.575 points per match on average.

If they maintain that points per game ratio over their final six games City will end up on 72 or 73 points - which in previous seasons has been just enough to guarantee a play-off place.

And with just six games to go, if City could actually match the points haul of their last six outings - 13 from a possible 18 at an average of 2.16 points per game - the Minstermen will finish with 76 points.

That would be one point more than in 1993, the last time City won promotion to Division Two on that never to be forgotten day at Wembley.

For the superstitious rather than the statistical, there is further cause for optimism with the fact this season - 2002-03 - has the number three in it.

In 1973-74 City gained promotion from the old Division Three while in 1983-84 the Minstermen won the old Division Four championship with a record 101 points.

In 1993 came the Wembley win over Crewe and promotion while the following 1993-94 season saw City reach the play-offs again.

Updated: 11:49 Friday, April 04, 2003