York City captain Chris Brass insists the players remain firmly committed to the Minstermen cause ahead of tomorrow's Division Three clash at Rochdale.

And amid all the ownership and financial problems currently surrounding the club, Brass reckons triumph could yet be born from all the adversity.

Brass, who will miss tomorrow's trip to Spotland through suspension, said: "The players hear the rumours and are aware of all the uncertainty. But there was this same uncertainty just a few months ago when the previous chairman was selling.

"Last season, that brought the lads closer together.

"The lads are a good bunch who will stick together to get the right result. All we can concentrate on or do anything about is what happens on the pitch."

Brass admitted it was probably no co-incidence that when last season's Save City campaign was at its peak and folk rallied around the stricken club, results improved."It was great the way everyone got behind their club," he said.

"The problems seemed to galvanise the whole city. The fans showed how passionate they were about their club and I think the players showed how passionate they are about their football.

"Hopefully, we can emulate that and out of circumstances like this sometimes a lot of good can come.

"Last season, we were never in a position to produce anything in terms of promotion.

"This time we have got a good chance.

"It would be horrible to think we might win promotion but there might be no York City next season, but that could happen."

Fans' favourite Jon McCarthy will not play for City tomorrow despite a proposed move to Carlisle United having not yet gone through.

Boss Terry Dolan said McCarthy was expected to continue his talks with the Cumbrians over the weekend so his place in the squad will go to Christian Fox.

It will be Fox's first first-team appearance since the opening day of the season after suffering knee ligament damage. He is expected to start on the bench.

Dolan will also be without suspen-ded duo Brass and Jon Parkin as well as on-loan winger Lee Cook, who has a chest infection.

There was slightly better news for City with Scott Jones showing signs of recovery from a stomach bug. He might get a place on the bench.

Rochdale, whose poor run ended with a fine FA Cup win over Peterborough last weekend, have just one injury worry, with Northern Ireland international winger Patrick McCourt - who helped Dale beat City 5-4 in last year's fixture - likely to miss out with a groin problem.

Updated: 11:29 Friday, November 22, 2002