YORK City are using crocodile cheers to stoke up a white-hot match-day atmosphere at Bootham Crescent, writes Dave Stanford.

The Evening Press can reveal pre-recorded crowd noise was piping through the public address system during Tuesday night's 1-0 victory over Darlington.

City chairman John Batchelor said the club wanted to crank up the volume at Bootham Crescent and help roar the team into Division Two and canning the fans had a serious purpose.

Taped crusader Batchelor, who has already called on the City faithful to cheer their heroes on to promotion, said: "It's an experiment.

"We have been taping the fans in the David Longhurst Stand for a couple of weeks.

"Alan Hyde (who has been helping improve City's match-day entertainment) has got a lap-top and he tapes different chants that the crowd has.

"At a push of a button he can join it in with them and start moving the volume up.

"He can actually overlay track after track so you could have 100,000 people making noise from just one computer."

Batchelor insisted his latest initiative was not a publicity stunt and maintained the pre-recorded fan fervour would only be used sparingly.

He stressed the recording would not be played during quiet periods or used to drown out fans voicing their frustration.

The City chairman also said no-one, apart from the Evening Press, had mentioned the taped crowd noise in the aftermath of Tuesday's game, suggesting fans had either not noticed the ruse or were not troubled by it.

"It is just about helping to raise the atmosphere," Batchelor explained. "The fans already make a lot of noise.

"But I walked out on to the pitch the other day when Alan was testing it.

"I stood out in the middle of the pitch and shut my eyes and you would have thought the ground was absolutely packed.

"It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up."

City are not alone in trying to improve the noise emanating from the stands and terraces on match-day. Indeed, The Minstermen are in good company.

Manchester United, who have the biggest home crowds in the Premiership, were reportedly once considering a similar trick a few years ago after complaints about the sterile atmosphere at Old Trafford.

Updated: 11:42 Friday, September 20, 2002