YORK City ace Lee Bullock today declared his devotion to the Minstermen as Cardiff City made public their admiration for the midfielder.

The Evening Press revealed in midweek the Bluebirds were one of a number of First Division clubs tracking the 22-year-old.

That was confirmed by Cardiff boss Lennie Lawrence, who said: "(Bullock) is someone we are tracking. He is one of several young players we have looked at.

"Nothing is imminent though. We will not be signing him tomorrow and we haven't gone as far as to ask about compensation."

Speaking to the Evening Press, Bullock insisted he had no burning desire to quit Bootham Crescent.

"It's nice to know (of the interest) but it's all paper talk, as far as I'm concerned," he said.

"As long as I keep playing well for York every week, that is all that matters.

"I'm happy playing at York and until the gaffer or the chairman tell me otherwise then I'm happy to stay. I love it playing here."

Bullock preferred to focus his energy on maintaining City's promotion ambitions as the Minstermen welcomed Swansea City to Bootham Crescent this afternoon.

Last week's 2-2 draw at Leyton Orient stretched City's unbeaten run to six league games but couldn't stop the Minstermen from slipping to 12th in the table.

In effect, City are now propping up the top half of the table, who are all still looking up, and enjoy a five point gap over the bottom half, who are all looking down.

Bullock admitted today's clash with the Swans was almost a 'must win'.

Victory would keep City up there among the promotion candidates while defeat could see the Minstermen sucked back towards the also-rans.

"It's a massive game to keep in touch with the play-off places and the last promotion place," said Bullock.

"We've had a decent run and it is always better not to be losing games.

"But we know there are a lot of games in that run that we should have won - Oxford, Boston and Cheltenham all spring to mind.

"There is a gap beneath us now and if we keep winning then we can maintain that gap and we can push for the play-offs and the automatic spot.

"We know we are capable of doing it, the second-half performance at Leyton Orient showed that when we ran them ragged."

Updated: 09:36 Saturday, November 29, 2003