James Meredith is doubtful for York City’s FA Trophy semi-final, second leg clash at Luton Town tomorrow after clashing heads with team-mate Jamal Fyfield.

The Australian full-back, who has won back-to-back Press man-of-the-match awards having been switched to midfield for City’s last two games, suffered a nasty facial injury at the club’s Wigginton Road training base yesterday.

City boss Gary Mills is now waiting to see whether the 23-year-old former Telford defender is in a fit state to feature at Kenilworth Road, where the Minstermen travel with a 1-0 advantage.

Mills said: “James Meredith got his nose smashed in training badly. He’s been to hospital and was waiting to see a surgeon.

“If he doesn’t make it, that will be a big blow to us because he’s been superb in midfield the last couple of games.

“He’s given us something in midfield that we haven’t had for a couple of months in terms of passing and winning the ball and keeping the game simple for us so, fingers crossed, we can patch him up and get him through.”

The City boss admitted that he did not foresee any other changes to the side that started Tuesday night’s impressive 3-2 win at Grimsby.

David McGurk (throat) and Ben Gibson (hamstring) remain unavailable, while Lanre Oyebanjo’s ankle problem is improving but not sufficiently for him to make the trip to Bedfordshire.

On the implications of taking a slender lead to Luton, Mills added: “We can only play one way as we have proven all season. We need to go at teams the best we can and then be solid and keep a good shape when we haven’t got the ball.

“That’s why we haven’t lost many games. We know what it’s like at Luton and will need to be at our best.

“We are in front so we don’t need to panic and rush to take corners and free-kicks. But we need to play with the same tempo as we did at Grimsby and make sure we don’t take our foot off the pedal.

“We needed Tuesday’s performance because we’ve been picking up results without playing how we want to play and how we know we can play. But to play like we did at a team like Grimsby before a semi-final, second leg was ideal and can only give us confidence.”

Mills is also undaunted by Luton’s record-breaking run of ten consecutive home clean sheets, saying: “It’s about time that changed and somebody scored although, if Luton want to extend that record, we’ll take a 0-0 off them.

“What I do know is they have got to come out and score and I think that will suit us.”

Unlike former Bootham Crescent bosses, such as Colin Walker, Mills has refused to ban all talk of Wembley during his team’s run to the last four and, in complete contrast, has used the world-famous national stadium for all its motivational worth.

He said: “I’ve used the word Wembley right from our first game against Solihull. We’ve written it down on every flip-chart before matches because, if I was a player, just seeing that would give me an extra yard.

“I think it’s been an inspiration during our run all the way to the semi-finals and Wembley will be mentioned a lot more times between now and tomorrow.”

Mills added, meanwhile, that he is fully aware of the financial significance of a Trophy final to a club that continues to suffer considerable six-figure operating losses per season.

He said: “The chairman backs this club tremendously and I want to get to Wembley for him to repay him a bit because people say reaching the final is worth about £250,000. I don’t think you can ever win enough trophies as a club or medals as a player either.

“A great club like Liverpool were grateful for winning the Carling Cup this season and I want to win the FA Trophy, the North Riding Senior Cup on Tuesday and then the play-off final.”

Youth-team captain Tom Platt, currently on loan with Blue Square Bet North Harrogate Town, has agreed professional terms for next season at City.