YORK City manager Martin Foyle is compiling dossiers on his club’s possible play-off opponents with three weeks of the Blue Square Premier campaign left to run.

Foyle watched Rushden and Diamonds’ home match with Crawley Town last night and will also attend the meeting of top two Stevenage and Luton at Broadhall Way this afternoon with the Bootham Crescent club without a game until Easter Monday’s home match with Altrincham due to the expulsion of Chester.

The City chief has been keeping tabs on all top-five contenders in recent weeks, watching as many games involving his team’s probable promotion rivals as possible.

Foyle wants to be prepared regardless of who City, currently fifth in the table, might face in a crucial two-legged semi-final, as well as at Wembley if the club were to go a step further.

The former Port Vale boss is also looking out for possible new recruits with the 2010/11 campaign in mind.

He said: “You can get reports off people but, if you see these teams with your own eyes, it gives you your best possible shot. Some clubs have proper scouting systems but we lag behind a bit in that respect.

“You can rely on contacts and get DVDs in but you have to watch them and that takes time as well. We are getting through a lot of work and, hopefully, in the end, hard work gets you your rewards.”

Added Foyle: “I need to see Stevenage as we will be playing them in three weeks and I haven’t seen Luton for a little while either. I’m also thinking about next season and looking at players we might need if we did go up or we need to build again over the summer.

“Some of them at this level are on ridiculous money though – more than I was on as a League One manager at Port Vale.”

The Conference board are yet to decide whether sixth-placed Kettering, eight points adrift of the Minstermen, will be permitted to participate in the play-offs should they finish in a top-five position.

There were doubts over the Poppies’ security of tenure at their Rockingham Road ground, which would prevent them from being promoted to the Football League.

But Kettering are still waiting to learn their fate with club secretary Justin Boyd, saying: “We haven’t heard anything from the Conference yet and time is running out a little bit.”

Conference chief executive Dennis Strudwick added: “We will be informing Kettering first before we let anybody else know.”

The FA, meanwhile, have told the clubs, including City, hoping to regain points they won against Chester that their appeal was not made in time.

As a result, the Deva Stadium outfit’s record will continue to be expunged from the table.

Blue Square have also extended their sponsorship of the top three non-League divisions until 2013.

Under the terms of the three-year, seven-figure deal, the Blue Square Premier will become the Blue Square Bet Premier from next season.

World Cup legend Sir Geoff Hurst will also represent Blue Square at this season’s play-off final on May 16.

The play-off, semi-final, first-leg dates will be played on April 29 and 30 with the return games on May 3 and 4.