DEFIANT Terry Dolan believes York City are still on the rise despite the Minstermen suffering their second successive defeat.

City may have lost a pulsating encounter with Luton Town 2-1 but Dolan's mood was in stark contrast to just a week earlier when the Minstermen crashed 4-0 at Hull.

"Sometimes in football you don't get what you deserve and we didn't deserve that," said the City boss.

"We are going to make mistakes because we have got young players in the team.

"But they tried to play the right way and we are creating chances and if we continue to play like that we will win more than we lose."

In arguably one of the most incident packed games witnessed at Bootham Crescent for many a season, City hit the woodwork twice and saw Alan Fettis pull off two penalty saves.

Minstermen debutant Marc Salvati had a goal disallowed for offside, as did the Hatters who were forced to substitute Steve Howard to prevent a bust-up between the striker and his team- mates.

"The game was more of what you would have expected last week in a local derby," admitted Dolan.

"We competed and we didn't give them too much time when they did have the ball.

"Unfortunately, the woodwork has got in the way on a couple of occasions, we had a goal disallowed, Chris Brass has been clean through and the ball has bounced away from him and we have had other chances that we didn't take.

"On another day we could have scored five or six. I said to Joe Kinnear after the game 'you were fairly lucky there Joe' and I think he agreed with me,

"But as I keep saying to the players, every game is different and it is a good learning experience for them."

Dolan admitted he was particularly pleased with his team's battling qualities after labelling their performance at Boothferry Park "powder-puff".

"I asked the players to compete more than at Hull and they answered me in that respect," he said. "Unfortunately the only real bad mistake we made was for their first goal.

"We gave the player who has received the ball from a throw in too much time to cross the ball and we didn't defend that well enough."

A major plus point for Dolan was the second-half showing of Salvati, who could be poised for an extended run in the first team.

Salvati replaced Michael Evans after the Dutchman suffered a hamstring strain.

"I was pleased with Marc's contribution," said Dolan.

"He has come on half-way through a game which is never easy. He has got promise and that is why he is in the squad."

Updated: 11:25 Monday, September 17, 2001