York City's board will be hoping it will be third time lucky with new manager Billy McEwan.

He has followed Chris Brass and Viv Busby in the KitKat Crescent hotseat as the Minstermen bid to ease further away from the Nationwide Conference relegation zone.

However, the manner in which his predecessors vacated the manager's office has left a bitter taste in some quarters.

Brass is known to be not entirely happy with the amount of support he got at boardroom level towards the end of his reign.

Busby said the board "went behind his back" in their search for a new manager, adding: "I don't think this has been handled very professionally.".

Communications director Sophie McGill admitted that there had been some misunderstanding over the Busby situation.

There is often fall-out when a manager goes, but City need to be careful not to make a habit of it and build themselves an unwanted reputation.

Now that City have regained control of their ground the club can concentrate firmly on two key issues - results and finding a new home.

There should also be more time for liason with new boss McEwan.

Rightly, or wrongly, the impression is that both Brass and Busby were left to get on with it by a new board anxious not to interfere.

Perhaps the board could consider co-opting a past player as a football director to act as a bridge between the boardroom and the manager and his staff.

It is a role which Barry Swallow filled before he opted to take the money and run.

He has burned his bridges in that respect, but one thing that the anguish of the last three years has done is galvanise the ex-players.

There is a strong network of loyal ex-City men living locally who have graced the club down the decades.

Although there is no formal ex-players' association, there is a great reservoir of football knowledge out there.

All the board members have their own businesses to run and responsible jobs to do outside football, yet have to find the time to run a professional club.

It is an enormous task and one they have shouldered admirably, but perhaps now is the time to get on the ball and add a director to keep an eye on the football side of things.

That is not to say he should interfere with McEwan's work, far from it.

Former Leeds and York City player Peter Lorimer, for example, is on the board at Elland Road - the only director to survive the Ken Bates takeover.

Bates was smart enough to know he needed someone steeped in football - and Leeds United in particular - in his boardroom.

TKO was written this week by Sports Editor Martin Jarred

Updated: 09:54 Tuesday, February 15, 2005