YORK City were poised to give a late fitness test to Christian Fox ahead of tonight's clash with in-form Plymouth Argyle at Bootham Crescent.

The stylish midfielder made his first start of the season in Saturday's 2-2 draw at Bristol Rovers.

In doing so it brought to an end almost eight months of injury anguish for Fox, who underwent extensive knee surgery in February.

However, fears Fox had suffered a fresh injury blow were raised after he was subjected to a couple of heavy tackles before being substituted on 70 minutes on Saturday. He also missed training yesterday.

But those fears were quickly squashed by City boss Terry Dolan today.

"He is okay. He just got a bang on the inside of his calf," said the City chief.

"The fact he got up okay after the tackles proves his knee is okay."

Providing Fox shows no further reaction the 20-year-old is sure to start against the high-flying Pilgrims with Dolan expected to name the same starting line-up.

However, with the likes of Alex Mathie and Marc Salvati able to come off the bench and play a part in City's fight-back at Rovers, the City chief admits he at least now has options for change.

"There are a few options for us but I haven't decided on the starting line-up yet because we will have to see how Foxy is this morning," said Dolan.

As well as bringing to an end a run of three successive defeats, the City boss argued Saturday's draw helped the Minstermen break an important psychological barrier.

"Getting into double figures points-wise was important," he reasoned.

"Once you get to ten you want to get to 20 as quickly as possible and once you get there you want to get to 30 as soon as possible and so on.

"But you can bring up all the statistics you want, it is how we play that is important.

"We are still conceding too many goals at the moment but on the plus side we are scoring a few.

"From a progression point of view, I would rather us draw 2-2 than 0-0."

Dolan admits he expects Plymouth, who have gone six games unbeaten, to provide the Minstermen with a stiff test.

"We are facing one of the form teams tomorrow and they and Hull are the only teams unbeaten away from home in the league.

"That should give us an indication of what to expect."

The date for City's LDV Vans Trophy first round tie at Notts County has been confirmed as Tuesday, October 16, kick-off 7.45pm.

Updated: 11:47 Tuesday, September 25, 2001