Protesting fans are urging other supporters to join them as they stage a one-off boycott of York City's Auto Windscreen Shield tie at home to Hull City tomorrow night.

Demonstrating supporters' group Fans Against Craig's Tyranny (FACT) claim the stay-away is in protest at what they describe as a "heavy-handed" crackdown on their calls for chairman Douglas Craig to quit.

The club say the increase in the number of stewards in the Shipton Street end of the ground is part of a clampdown on foul and abusive chanting at a time when they are trying to attract families to Bootham Crescent.

City say they are responding to requests by families made in their on-going fans' survey to stop bad language at Bootham Crescent.

FACT spokesman Greg Stone said the group felt a mass boycott of the cup game would also demonstrate supporters' frustration at the decision of the club to charge full admission prices for tomorrow's match with the Tigers.

"Fans are already staying away in large numbers as a protest against the way the club is managed, and intimidating those who remain is not the way to bring them back," said Stone.

"We are also angry that we are being charged full price to see City play Hull for the third time in two months and this time in what is frankly a meaningless competition.

"It would have been much better public relations, and much better for the attendance, to reduce admission prices for this game."

Stone claimed that some season ticket holders had already told FACT that they would be staying away from tomorrow's game.

City had announced a 'kid-a-quid' scheme last month for the forthcoming Torquay and Exeter games as well as introducing a discount for students, but opted not to offer concessions for the AWS game.

Stone, who revealed FACT have now settled an invoice issued by the club for a clean-up operation after they staged a red-card protest in September, said the boycott was a last resort.

"Other attempts to make the chairman aware of our concern, such as the red card protest and chanting, have resulted in a contemptuous and arrogant dismissal.

"We're asking fans to pass judgement on his regime by staying away for one game."

Stone said FACT had been using the internet to publicise their protest and had also made their plans known to the Hull media.

"We hope that by staying away for one game Mr Craig will be compelled to recognise how widespread fan disillusionment has become.

"We hope that our protest tomorrow will reduce numbers to below 1,500 which will be a major embarrassment.

"We've received the backing of dozens of supporters over the internet and have even made an appeal in the Hull evening paper for the their fans to stay away in solidarity."

Stone said FACT had sent a payment of £41.12, raised in a recent collection on the terraces, to meet the cost of the bill levied after their red-card protest.

Stone said the money, accompanied by a Christmas card, was "a charitable donation and expression of festive goodwill".

Only a handful of Hull fans are expected to travel to Bootham Crescent for tomorrow night's fixture.

Sources close to Hull City say Tigers boss Warren Joyce is expected to play only "fringe players" as he prepares his side for the visit of Chelsea in the FA Cup on Saturday.

A week on Tuesday they travel to Peterborough, a match that will mean the Tigers having played 11 games in five weeks.

No one at City was available to comment on the boycott at the time of going to press.

l England will not know until January if they will be able to play Japan and Korea as part of their preparations for the 2002 World Cup.

The Football Association are in talks with the World Cup co-hosts about playing them in some form of tournament in 2001.

l Chelsea have four major worries ahead of tomorrow night's Champions League game against Lazio.

Dennis Wise played in Saturday's 4-1 defeat at Sunderland despite being sick on Friday and Chelsea boss Gianluca Vialli will reassess his captain's fitness before deciding on his starting line-up in Rome.

Defender Albert Ferrer twisted his ankle in training last week and missed the trip to Wearside, French defender Marcel Desailly was withdrawn from the game at Sunderland at half-time after taking a kick on his calf and Romanian full-back Dan Petrescu is still troubled by a back injury.

Click here for Saturday's match report.

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