SPORT plays fast and loose with fans' emotions. One moment you are on top of the world, the next in the depths of depression. All it takes is a couple of results either way.

York City have played only three games of a 46-fixture league campaign. In post-match clich, there is a long way to go, Brian.

Saturday's thrilling win over Torquay encapsulated the fickleness of football. The hearts of the faithful bungee jumped from the sky to their boots and back again as they witnessed their team's shifting fortunes.

Today, Terry Dolan will be instructing his players not to get carried away. Fans will be telling themselves the same thing.

Forget that. We should celebrate. City have already achieved something important, whatever the rest of the season holds.

In January, the club's future looked bleak. Its very existence was in doubt.

If you had told supporters then that the Minstermen would be second in the league come mid-August, held off the top spot by goal difference alone, few would have believed it.

York City are not only still here, they have made a cracking start to their new era. Recent years have seen a famine of good times at Bootham Crescent; fans should make the most of this feast.

By contrast, the future of professional rugby league in the city looks grim. If a club is to be revived, another £40,000 needs to be raised in 12 days.

It is a tall order. But rugby fans should take heart and learn lessons from the York City experience. The football club was largely saved by a groundswell of grassroots support.

The Supporters' Trust galvanised the campaign, and proved to John Batchelor that here was a club worth rescuing.

The same can happen again. Sport is nothing without passion and optimism: a tidal wave of both might just sweep York rugby league from the edge of extinction to the promise of a new beginning.

But if it is going to happen, it must happen now.

Updated: 10:20 Monday, August 19, 2002