YORK City chief Terry Dolan is relishing the final two games of the season, despite seeing his side miss a host of chances in the 0-0 draw against Kidderminster.

With relegation-threatened Exeter the visitors on Saturday and then a trip to play-off rivals Oxford a week later, the Minstermen face their most crucial 180 minutes of football for a decade.

City could have done their chances a power of good with three points from Harriers yesterday, with Jon Parkin guilty of missing two clear-cut chances and Keith Graydon hitting the post, but Dolan, who was forced to watch the action from the stands because of an FA ban, is happy for his charges to still be in with a shout.

"It was frustrating from everybody's point of view because again we have created chances but not put them away," he said. "I think Jon Parkin feels he has run over half a dozen cats over the last couple of days because I can count maybe seven or eight goals he could have scored against Lincoln and Kidderminster but that is how it goes.

"There was an incident in the first half when he has missed a good chance and his head has dropped and, although I wasn't in the dug- out for other reasons, we have tried to get the message on for him to keep his head up because other chances would come. They did come, but unfortunately they didn't hit the back of the net.

"And in our best spell when we got it down and started to pass it about, Keith Graydon has hit the post and its gone out.

"But there are two games to play and we are still right in there. We always felt it might go to the last game and it will, assuming we can get something from Exeter."

City's preparations for the game were not helped by the loss of two key players prior to kick-off and another half-way through, but the late changes only served to highlight Dolan's belief in the squad.

He revealed: "We lost Chris Smith this morning who went down with flu, Anthony Shandran had to come off with a perforated ear drum courtesy of being hit by Darren Edmondson's shot in the first minute, while Stephen Brackstone has had to come in for Lee Bullock who has picked up a shoulder injury similar to that of Michael Ingham, so we have had to make several changes.

"But importantly the players all stuck at it, they are all disappointed as the extra two points would have made a big difference, but we live to fight another day on Saturday."

What sort of squad takes to the field on Saturday will have to be seen, with physio Jeff Miller facing a busy week after skipper Chris Brass and Scott Jones added their names to the walking wounded list.

Dolan added: "I thought Chris Brass had pulled his hamstring at the end, but it seems to be a bang on the hip, while Scott Jones has a bit of a tight groin, but I think these are just injuries from a long hard season and they should be okay."

Updated: 11:42 Tuesday, April 22, 2003