YORK City chief Terry Dolan was full of praise of his charges after they moved up into third spot despite a car accident forcing him into make a late change to his defence to face Southend United.

Dolan was robbed of the services of Scott Jones, after the Sheffield-based centre-half had to wait for the police after a lorry backed into his car while at a petrol station near Barnsley.

This forced Dolan to turn to former Hull defender Gary Hobson to step into the breach at the last moment, but it was hardly noticable as the Minstermen churned out another solid defensive display to topple Southend 2-0.

And with Bournemouth and Scunthorpe both drawing, the win lifted City into the third automatic promotion spot.

Goals from Lee Nogan - his sixth of the season - and Lee Bullock in the first 45 minutes sealed the win, but for the second successive week Dolan pin-pointed his side's defensive performance as the platform for the success.

He said: "When we knew what their team was with Mark Rawle in there and Barrington Belgrave, we knew that they had a little bit of pace, but we never let them get in behind us and I think that was crucial.

"Michael (Ingham) has not had too much to do as far as direct shots, I think his first real save came late on, but credit to everyone, we've defended really well.

"We've had to make one or two changes. Gary Hobson came in at the last minute because Scott Jones was involved in not a crash as such, but he was in a petrol station near Barnsley and a lorry has reversed straight into his car and through his windscreen, so he had to wait for the police to sort it out and couldn't get here.

"Lee Bullock was looking tired towards the end, Richard Cooper got a dead leg at half-time so that's way he came off late on. It was Keith Graydon's first 90 minutes in the Football League and Jon Parkin had to come off.

"So we've had to chop and change things a bit but we got the right result and that epitomises everyone at the club.

"Southend changed things around at half-time so we've had to defend in numbers in the second half and although we didn't keep possession as well as we could have in the last 20 minutes, we did our job defensively and at 2-0 up you can do that."

With Saturday's original fixture against Carlisle postponed because of the Cumbrian side's involvement in the LDV Vans Trophy, City now have a fortnight's break until their next match.

But despite the interruption in his side's five-match unbeaten run allowing the Minstermen's rivals to gain the ground on them, Dolan is happy for the break.

"We have now got a two-week breather, so most of the teams will be playing next week and I imagine the League table will change slightly by this time next week," he said. "But we have got 63 points and that is the important thing, everybody else has still got to get these points.

"We are not worried about our opposition or the other teams all we can concentrate is doing our own job.

"After our break we have got four games in the space of nine days, with the rearranged Carlisle game fitted in, so I'm sure it will do the lads a power of good to have a breather."

Updated: 10:50 Monday, March 31, 2003