YORK City supremo Douglas Craig admits he is not surprised by the extraordinary managerial cull sweeping through football nor the latest calls for manager Terry Dolan to be sacked.

Stockport County manager Andy Kilner is reported to have become the 20th managerial casualty of the season.

Kilner's departure from Edgeley Park means almost a quarter of the men who led their clubs at the start of the season have now gone with the campaign still less than three months old.

It is an astonishing statistic, but one that does not astound Craig.

"I am not really surprised," he told the Evening Press.

"Everybody is getting pressurised into chasing instant success but I do not think the vast majority of the changes have been really justified, most of them have been panic measures.

"And most of the situations where the managers have gone the new managers who have come in are not getting any money to do anything about it."

With Craig at the helm, City have always bucked the modern trend of managers' jobs coming under pressure.

And with City just two points off the play-off zone, the City chairman gave little indication of a hasty change in policy, despite fans' protests after Saturday's 1-0 win over Macclesfield.

Craig, who has always refused to give votes of confidence to managers, said: "One doesn't get surprised by the behaviour of certain people who claim to be fans."

And he insisted City have as much reason to be as optimistic for the remainder of the campaign as the vast majority of their Third Division foes

He said: "It was easy to see the difference with the three experienced players coming back into the side on Saturday, but there are none so blind as those who will not see."

He added: "What is very evident in the Third Division is the only consistent factor is inconsistency.

"There is something like four points between seventh place and 18th place and only 16 games have gone. There are still 30 games to go.

"Apart from Plymouth and possibly Luton, all the teams are much of a muchness."

Updated: 09:00 Tuesday, October 30, 2001