MIDFIELDER Stephen Brackstone and defender Stuart Wise face a race to be fit for the Boxing Day showdown with Boston United.

Brackstone came off in the first half feeling poorly, while Wise suffered a bang to the head after half-time.

Many eyes were on last night's crowd figure after pleas from the club for huge support to help City pull out of the financial mire. Although the 3,411 was fairly good for a pre-Christmas fixture it is still way short of the break-even figure of around 6,000.

At the start of the season the Lincoln game was switched to Friday night as an experiment as the Saturday before Christmas traditionally provides low attendances.

Last night's turnout was the largest pre-Christmas attendance since City beat Manchester City 2-1 on December 19, 1998 when a big away following swelled the crowd to 7,527.

Last season just 2,082 saw the December 15 clash against Cheltenham at Bootham Crescent. The previous winter 2,705 turned out for the December 22 game against Blackpool.

Last night's game was not attended by any City directors.

Updated: 12:14 Saturday, December 21, 2002