FORMER Welsh international Lee Nogan believes York City can go on and secure the third automatic promotion spot after Southend's Nemesis maintained his scoring record against his former club in Saturday's 2-0 victory.

Nogan, who played 11 games on loan at Roots Hall split over two spells (1987-88 and 1993-94), may not be the Minstermen's most prolific scorer. But over the years he has had a habit of netting against Southend.

He did not disappoint with the opener on Saturday and with Lee Bullock adding the second, Nogan says the belief within the squad is that they can now secure automatic promotion.

He told the Evening Press: "Everyone here believes we can go on to win promotion automatically now, that is our belief. We have three home games out of the six left, so I think another four wins should be enough for us.

"But we have got to keep playing like we did in the first half, especially at home, and keep going. We have got to believe we can get that third spot."

Despite being forced to defend in the second half by Southend, Nogan pin-points City's display in the first 45 minutes as key to their success.

"It was a good start for us," he added. "In the first half, I thought we played some good football and I scored a good goal. It was good touch by Keith (Graydon) first, and I saw the keeper at the near post and I thought if I hit it early across the face of the goal it's got a chance.

"To get the second right on half-time was big bonus. At 2-0, it took a bit of pressure off. The second half was poor on our behalf, but credit to them, they were 2-0 down. But didn't stop and they passed it about well without really causing us a threat.

"We were comfortable, although we did make hard work of it, but it is not going to be pretty or easy at this stage in the season, everyone is fighting for points."

On his scoring record against Southend, he has netted three goals in four appearances against them while at City, Nogan added: "I had a couple of loan spells down there early on in my career and didn't get that many goals for them.

"I remember a fan saying when we played them last season that I always score against them, but it is just one of those things."

Updated: 10:52 Monday, March 31, 2003