YORK City manager Terry Dolan today explained his reasoning after wielding the axe on five of the nine players who will be out of contract at Bootham Crescent this summer.

Marc Thompson had already been told his contract would not be renewed but the midfielder has now been joined by team-mates John Fielding, Neville Stamp, Nick Richardson and Matt Hocking, who have all been told they can go.

Goalkeeper Russ Howarth, defender Darren Edmondson, striker Peter Duffield and midfielder Stephen Brackstone have been informed they will be offered new deals although actual contracts are not yet on the table. Dolan and chairman John Batchelor are expected to start negotiations with them next week.

Hocking's departure is perhaps the biggest surprise given that he has played the vast majority of City's games this season.

"There are several reasons behind releasing players and obviously one is the financial situation," said the City chief.

"The wages have to be reduced, especially with all the uncertainty over ITV Digital.

"Bearing that in mind, Matt Hocking was one of the higher paid players."

City are also top-heavy with centre-backs with Mike Basham, Gary Hobson, Chris Smith, Chris Brass, Jon Parkin and Stuart Wise all able to play at the heart of the Minstermen defence.

On-loan defender Scott Jones has also made it clear he would like to make his move to Bootham Crescent permanent, which would add yet another centre-back to the squad.

Dolan said today that Jones' future was out of his hands, given that Bristol Rovers have yet to appoint a new manager who may want to keep the former Barnsley defender, who has one year of his Memorial Ground contract still to run.

Fielding's departure may also be a surprise after the 20-year-old enjoyed a prolonged run in the team at the start of the season.

However, he is yet another centre-back and has been dogged by injury.

Despite returning to the reserve team in recent weeks the fact he has not earned a first team recall suggested his time was up.

Full-back Stamp has also suffered badly with injury this season and never really established himself as a regular in the City line-up.

At 35, Richardson is one of the older players in the squad and given the emergence of players like Brackstone, Leigh Wood and Lee Bullock this season his departure is not a surprise.

"With the emergence of so many younger players his age has gone against Nick Richardson," confirmed Dolan.

"The other players, Stamp, Fielding and Thompson, have not progressed as we would have liked and have all been hampered by injury.

"Bearing in mind we are going to have a younger squad and certainly not a bigger one next season we have got to be looking at more reliable players from a fitness point of view."

Updated: 11:00 Saturday, April 20, 2002