Grin and bare it

Young defender John Fielding limped from the field ten minutes from time in the 2-0 defeat at Notts County to leave manager Terry Dolan with a major defensive problems ahead of Saturday's visit of Southend United to Bootham Crescent.

With Fielding rated "very doubtful", Mike Basham suspended and Gary Hobson well short of match fitness, Dolan admits he is running out of options in the heart of his defence.

In a bid to end the defensive errors that had seen City lose successive League games, the City chief reverted to playing three centre-backs last night.

It threatened to reap dividends for a time against County but in light of Fielding's fresh injury woes the tactic no longer looks an option available to the City manager ahead of the visit of the Shrimpers.

Dolan is reluctant to withdraw skipper Chris Brass from the engine room of midfield, leaving him with just two fit centre-backs in Matt Hocking and rookie Chris Smith.

To make matters worse, Darren Edmondson and Graham Potter are not expected to shake off the injuries that have ruled them out of City's last two outings before Saturday.

Midfielder Lee Bullock should be fit after being rested last night with a knee-knock but teenage winger Marc Salvati is a fresh casualty after suffering an ankle injury in training that ruled him out of the County Ground clash.

Dolan admitted City have little option but to grin and bare it, but having now suffered three successive defeats the timing of City's latest injury blows could not be any worse.

"We have had a couple of bad weeks and the injuries are starting to mount up," he reasoned.

"We certainly don't have many options at the moment, we are severely limited and our numbers are diminishing.

"Gary Hobson may play half of the reserve game at Blackpool at most, so he is unlikely to come into the equation for Saturday.

"We already have two players in on loan and so cannot bring anyone else in. We are just going to have grit our teeth and stick at it."

Despite last night's defeat, Dolan refused to be too downcast about the Minstermen's performance, particularly given the fact only two players in the team - Lee Nogan and Brass - were aged over 25.

Indeed, only Matt Hocking, 23, in City's five-strong back line was aged over 20 with goalkeeper Russ Howarth also still only 19.

Having battled well in the first-half, two quick goals early in the second - including a controversial penalty when Nogan was adjudged to have handled - put paid to City's hopes of recording their first win in the competition in almost five years.

"We changed it to three centre-backs to try and give us a bit of stability and it worked in the first-half," he said.

"We never looked in any danger and even had a couple of chances at the other end ourselves towards the end of the first-half.

"But the first mistake we make we are punished for. At 1-0 we had something to hang on to but I have told the referee at the end I thought the penalty was a disgraceful decision.

"It hit Lee on the shoulder and at that stage it was a real body blow.

"But I have said to the players we cannot continue to feel sorry for ourselves because decisions are going against us.

"We have got to keep working hard and plugging away. There were signs we looked a bit more solid last night.

"We just need to get a result and the players have got to remain confident.

"There is only three points between us and ten teams. A win in the league on Saturday could take us back into the top half."

York City reserves were in action at Blackpool this afternoon.

Updated: 12:03 Wednesday, October 17, 2001