York City manager Terry Dolan today moved quickly to stop the rot by naming a number of the side that lost 2-0 at Barnet on Saturday in the reserves.

After three successive defeats, several players were expected to be in the second-string squad that was travelling to take on Stoke City this afternoon for an Avon Insurance League division one fixture postponed from last week.

Some of them may be in action again on Wednesday night as City's reserves take on Dolan's former club, Huddersfield Town, in an Avon Insurance League Cup tie at Bootham Crescent.

Speaking after the defeat at Underhill, Dolan pledged to turn the heat up on his out-of-sorts players this week "with hard work, more hard work and more hard work until the players start doing what we ask them to do".

"We have gone three games now where we haven't scored a goal and we have conceded too many and we are having a bad run at the moment," he said.

"We have asked them to do the basics and they have not done that so we have got a few problems at the moment.

"There are two reserve games coming up this week so maybe one or two can try and get their confidence back in the reserves.

"There was certainly a lack of confidence out there and players who are usually good at passing the ball couldn't even do that. It shows you the problems we have got."

The defeat saw City drop to 21st place and just eight points off the bottom.

Bottom club Carlisle, 1-0 winners over Shrewsbury, also have a game in hand and visit Bootham Crescent in the next few weeks.

However, a victory over Macclesfield on Saturday at Bootham Crescent would bring City level on points with the Silkmen - who lie just below mid-table respectability in 14th place.

Despite city's ominous position, Dolan is adamant they must look forward.

"It is not a case of looking over our shoulders. It is a case of looking at ourselves. We are just concerned about ourselves, nobody else," he insisted.

The City manager also indicated there could be a number of changes made to the starting line-up for the visit of Macclesfield to Bootham Crescent next Saturday.

Explaining he moved Mark Sertori up front again to give City "more power", he added: "To be fair he has shown a lot of enthusiasm and if Chris Iwelumo showed a little bit more like him we might have had a bit more of a chance of scoring goals.

"David McNiven has come on in the second-half and if he had shown more enthusiasm he might have been in the team for next week.

"At the moment there are a few heads down and there are going to be a few reminders during next week.

"Maybe a ray of light was the enthusiasm shown by James Turley when he came on. That is all we ask of players and maybe he will get a chance now.

"There are certainly quite a few places up for grabs now."

Updated: 09:08 Monday, January 15, 2001