IT PERHAPS tells you everything you need to know about Paul Stancliffe when he insists his benefit game against Sunderland tomorrow is not about him.

He may be the man of the moment, the centre of York City's attention and fan affection come 3pm - a rich and fitting reward for 11 years of unstinting service to the Minstermen - but Stancliffe is keen to put club before personal gain.

"I don't want to sound ungrateful because I really am very grateful to be having the game. I appreciate everything that people have done in organising the game and the fans who will come and watch," the club's head of youth development told the Evening Press.

"But, as daft as it sounds, from my point of view I want to keep it low key.

"It's going to be my day I suppose, but I really don't want it to distract from the 'gaffer' (Terry Dolan) and his preparations for the new season.

"A lot of people have asked if I'm going to be putting on my boots and taking part in the game and I must admit I've been tempted.

"But I've said to the 'gaffer' from the off 'use it as a preparation game, a pre-season friendly' and I don't want to interfere with that.

"No doubt, if I had asked he would have okayed it but it's an important preparation game for the team and, in any case, sanity prevails."

Imagine a bride insisting she doesn't want to be the centre of attention on her wedding day and you get an indication of Stancliffe's selfless thinking.

But that's Stancliffe - a defensive colossus, true City great and highly respected coach. Also, he is, quite simply, a very decent bloke.

As if to prove the point, when asked to highlight his major memories of the last 11 years at Bootham Crescent, Stancliffe decided against basking in glory.

Leading his City team-mates up the steps at Wembley on that magical May day back in 1993 after City clinched promotion to Division Two remains an abiding, highly cherished memory.

But, in another indication of the mentality of the man, it is a period when he felt unable to give his all to the City cause that first springs to mind for Stancliffe.

Signed by John Bird in July 1991, the now 44-year-old saw his early City career blighted by an Achilles injury.

"I think I only played about two or three games for John and unfortunately, he got released before I got fit - I probably got him the sack," he recalls.

"I'd like to think I could have made a difference if I'd been there but John brought me in and never got any return.

"I've always felt a little bit bad about that - not guilty because that's football and injuries are part and parcel of that.

"But it's one of the my earliest memories and I just wish he could have benefited the way John Ward did."

More than a decade on and no-one can have any doubts Stancliffe has repaid the club with added interest.

A year after Wembley - and a clutch of player of the season awards - Stancliffe made the step up to player-coach working alongside Alan Little.

Later he became assistant manager before taking up his current position as head of City's much-envied and rightly cherished youth programme.

Stancliffe admits a career in coaching had never been something he'd contemplated during the early days of his playing career that started at Rotherham, saw him captain Sheffield United in the old First Division before loan periods at Rotherham and Wolves and finally York City.

"Ask any footballer when they are young and most will say they don't think about coaching because they can't see the end of their career," he explains.

"But the older you get and you can see it coming, you realise that it's not a bad life although the further you go the harder it gets.

"There is also the question, 'can you do anything else?' and in my case no."

But after such a long time as part of a backroom team has he never been tempted to take the ultimate step and become a manager in his own right, to become the driving force rather than a cog, no matter how vital in the machine?

"I've been fortunate while I've been here in that there's always been vacancies here at the right time," he said.

"It's been a case of being in the right place at right time.

"Of course, you do look at situations and think what you would do with it. I don't think any coach in the land wouldn't do that.

"But at the moment I haven't been tempted."

Besides, you get the impression overseeing City's conveyor belt of young talent is rewarding enough for Stancliffe.

"The future for me is to keep producing the youth players.

"That, from my point of view, is still the biggest prize," he said.

"You still get an amazing amount of satisfaction and pride when you see one of your pupils, so to speak, coming through and making a debut."

Aston Villa-bound Lee Grant is just the latest starlet to emerge from City's youth system and head to the Premiership, following the likes of Chris Hogg, Jonathan Greening, Richard Cresswell, Nick Culkin and Darren Williams in recent years.

But for Stancliffe having a youngster come through the club's centre of excellence and actually play at Bootham Crescent in City colours is still the ultimate thrill.

"You have to be realistic. Any player in this club has a price and that is what York City is about at the moment.

"In an ideal world you keep your best young players and in utopia you'd like 11 people out there who have all come up through the ranks at York.

"That's why seeing the likes of Lee Bullock and Christian Fox in the first team has probably given me the greatest satisfaction up to now.

"They have stayed the course so far and Lee especially is now an established first-team player."

Updated: 13:13 Friday, July 26, 2002