YORK CITY reserve goalkeeper Chris Porter has set himself a target of ten first-team starts this season.

Porter has had to wait patiently on the sidelines after signing on a free transfer from Darlington in the summer as the consistency of number one choice Mark Ovendale has meant the Middlesbrough-born stopper is yet to make a first-team appearance for the Minstermen.

Ovendale is an early Player of the Year contender and has cemented his place between the City sticks since being released by Luton Town at the end of last season and a brief spell with Barry Town in the summer.

Porter, who is now 24, did not make a first-team appearance in three-and-a-half years during spells as a professional at Sunderland, Darlington, Hartlepool and Southend before his Football League debut in a second spell with Darlington in March 2002.

He went on to play 12 games for the Quakers and is now hoping to reach double figures for the Minstermen this season.

He said: "I would like to get ten games in. If I can do that and push Mark as much as I can for the number one spot then I would be happy.

"When I first signed there was a bit of a wait for the number one shirt because Mark had not come in then. But Mark got the spot and has held it, which is fair enough and there's no hard feelings from me.

"To be honest I am just happy to be here. I've been behind Mark but he has been fantastic.

"He's kept the lads in some games and has been doing his job. If I have to wait and bide my time then so be it but when my chance comes I will take it.

"All I have to do is bring my form into training and reserve games and just keep plugging away basically. Then, when I do get my opportunity, I need to transfer my form for the reserves into the first team and see what happens from there."

Despite being in direct competition for one starting place in the side, Porter says that his relationship with Ovendale is a close one.

He is also full of admiration for the former Bournemouth stopper, saying: "He's such an aggressive player, which you need because he comes to take the pressure off when he takes the crosses. He has also made some fantastic saves this season and, some of them, I don't know how he's made them.

"He's done really, really well and we get on really well together. We were both new here at the start of the season and it's the old clich you get at every club about a goalkeepers' union.

"We have stuck together and get on with it. We both help each other in training and it's like a closed unit that nobody dares come up against!"

Porter has also been impressed with player-boss Chris Brass since signing for City and feels a valued member of the squad despite spending the first four months of the season warming the bench.

He said: "I have had little chats with him now and then and he just says keep going. He lets you know when you have done well and not so well, which is the best way because honesty is always the best policy.

"He's straight down the middle and, as long as I keep doing well, hopefully my chance will come."

Porter would also prefer to wait for an opportunity at City than seek first-team football elsewhere with neither goalkeeper or manager discussing the possibility of a loan move.

The 6ft 2in stopper said: "I do not think that will happen. I am just happy to be at York at the moment and would not like to go somewhere else.

"It has been superb here. I have never been at a club that's been so close together as a squad or right the way through for that matter from the ticket office to the players and everybody else.

"It's family-orientated and I have never been at a club, from Darlington to Southend , that has the same good atmosphere."

Updated: 09:48 Saturday, November 29, 2003