At the time of writing this column the team have dropped out of the play-off places and now after a couple of 2-1 reverses, are lying in 11th place in the League.

The two defeats have proved costly but the performances on the pitch have deserved much more.

Playing second top of the Third Division, Rushden and Diamonds at Nene Park, was always going to be a difficult game and that proved to be the case, but for a couple of refereeing decisions we could have been going home with a point if not three.

We were on our travels again on Tuesday night, this time to Darlington.

The game was played at a furious pace and both teams were up for the battle. We went in at the interval 1-0 down but had the better of the chances.

Our start to the second half was impressive and the breakthrough came from a great left-foot half-volley by Lee Bullock.

From that point on there only looked like one winner but we couldn't convert our pressure into a second goal and were hit with a late winner from former City player Barry Conlon in the last five minutes.

This result dropped us into 11th place but still only three points off third-placed Bournemouth and five points clear of our next opponents Cambridge United, who lie in 12th place.

We face them on Saturday at Bootham Crescent and we will hope to revenge our 3-0 defeat at the Abbey Stadium last September.

The financial plight of York City FC, which worryingly still hangs in the balance, and that of other Third Division clubs, got me thinking of the feeder club system.

In the past some Premiership clubs have had links with European clubs.

They work together by helping the younger players of the Premiership club to gain first team experience and in return they get first choice of the talent from the European club.

This has happened before in the English game, but could this be taken one step further by having a Premiership club linked with a lower division club?

They could help out as mentioned before but also help financially.

With the millions of pounds available in the Premiership and so many Second and Third Division clubs struggling to keep their heads above water this may be the way forward for the English game.

It may sound totally infeasible but something has to be done to help the lower League clubs to survive.

The financial gap between the Premiership and the Nationwide is vast and would have to be addressed at some time. Otherwise we may end up with, in the extreme, only two league's - the Premiership and the Premiership 2.

At the moment the rich are becoming richer and the poor are about to become extinct.

One Premiership transfer fee could save two, three or maybe more Third Division clubs

Please God, let Manchester United adopt us.

Updated: 10:38 Thursday, March 06, 2003