YORK City skipper Chris Brass is facing a two-month spell on the sidelines after suffering a fracture to his right cheekbone just eight minutes into the Minstermen's 2-1 win over Kidderminster Harriers.

Brass, who got caught by an elbow as he went for a header, and club physio Jeff Miller were due to see a facial surgeon today to examine the extent of the injury - with a possibility the defensive linchpin will face surgery.

Brass, who was taken to the Worcester Royal Hospital for 'X'-rays on Saturday where they confirmed the injury, told the Evening Press: "Hopefully I'll be in the club today to see the surgeon. Unfortunately I won't know until then the extent of the damage.

"I saw the ball coming in and I put my arms up to cover myself but it was too late. I felt a crack, but although I didn't feel great, I thought I'd be okay to play on. But I tried to clear my nose and my eye swelled up immediately, which is a sign that you have damaged the cheekbone."

Despite facing a spell out, Brass is refusing to be too down.

"When I see the surgeon there are I few questions I want to ask him like can I play in a mask?," said Brass. "I'm going to see if I can get hold of one and get back a little bit quicker.

"Fortunately we have got a full squad at the moment, with only me on the sidelines. If there had been an injury pile-up, it would have been much worse.

"But the quality of the squad means we've players that can come in without a difference being noticed in the side.

"One thing that did cheer me up was hearing we had won 2-1."

City had taken the lead on 22 minutes through Stephen Brackstone and the Minstermen's cause should have been helped 17 minutes later when Kidderminster striker Drewe Broughton was sent off for aiming an elbow at Jon Parkin.

But within minutes, ten-man Kidderminster had levelled through Andrew Bishop and had chances to take the lead in the second half before Lee Nogan grabbed the points for City with a goal just five minutes from time.

Although the result was City's fourth League win in succession, their sixth without defeat, and their first at the Aggborough Stadium, tough-to-please manager Terry Dolan was refusing to get carried away.

Delighted with the three points and seeing his side climb to sixth, Dolan was less than enamoured with his team's performance.

For the second week in succession, City found themselves up against ten men for the bulk of the match and again almost failed to make their advantage count.

"We are not going to be too critical about the fact we have got three points, because that was a very important three points for us," said Dolan.

"But while we were happy with the result I wasn't happy as far as the performance was concerned because I know we can do better.

"I was disappointed we didn't use the extra man better in the second half.

"But you have to give credit to Kidderminster, because they worked their socks off having gone a man down and they put us under some pressure."

Dolan added: "Our best spell was in the first 20 minutes, when I thought we passed the ball very well and created chances.

"Once we got the goal I thought we would go on and win it but our discipline wasn't good enough in the ten-minute spell after their player got sent off.

"With Chris Brass having gone, we missed his organisation defensively and they got the goal back.

"It was a long ball and I thought Alan Fettis should have come and swept up really but it wasn't to be.

"With it being 1-1 and having got back into the game they are going to work as hard as they can.

"We didn't really pass the ball well enough in the second half and use the extra man as we did the week before against Brentford."

Updated: 13:04 Monday, December 16, 2002