York City were today waiting to hear if they had been successful in their bid to sign Airdrie winger Gordon Connelly.

The Diamonds board met last night to discuss City's offer which is believed to fall short of the Scottish First Division club's £100,000 valuation of the player.

City boss Alan Little said he would be making contact with Airdrie this morning to discover if he would have Connelly on board for Saturday's Division Two opener at Preston North End.

The 21-year-old former Scottish youth international was the only player with the Diamonds not to sign a new contract this summer, though it was revealed he still had a season to run under his current terms.

The capture of the versatile attacker, who first impressed the City management in the four-team tournament at Bootham Crescent last month, would end a protracted chase that at one stage looked to have perished.

Connelly was the star of Airdrie's opening match when they beat hosts City and then shone when he came on as a substitute in the final which the Diamonds eventually lost on a penalty shoot-out to Scarborough.

Airdrie, who kicked off their own campaign last night with a goalless draw against Clydebank at their new Shyberry Excelsior Stadium, would be sorry to see one-time youth team captain Connelly go.

Before last night's meeting, vice-chairman Campbell Craig said: "Put in the proper shop window we believe he could go places, but if the boy was going to go anywhere then we would love him to go to York."

Craig likened the 6ft-plus winger, who thrives as an outright wideman, or as wing-back, in character to striker Steve Cooper, Airdrie's £60,000 recruit from City four years ago.

"They are both very alike - well-mannered and polite off the pitch, but aggressive on it. They are both winners."

City's strikeforce are on full alert to net some additional cash.

The Japanese car company Mazda is putting an undisclosed six-figure sum into Football League sponsorship with individual and team awards for goalscoring.

The Mazda Centenary Goal Challenge will be awarded to the Nationwide League team that scores most goals during a month - and in the Mazda Marksman competition, a new sports car will be presented to any player to reach 30 goals by Christmas and/or 45 by the end of the regular season.

The deal, the company's first direct sponsorship of British soccer, will run for at least two seasons, and the competitions are open to all 72 League clubs and their players.

Former York City defender Steve Tutill, now skipper at Darlington, has been given the all-clear to play in Saturday's Division three opener against Barnet.

Tutill missed the last eight games of last season with a knee tendon injury, but trained non-stop in summer and played in the Quakers' pre-season tour of Scotland.

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