HOW the luckless Graham Potter must be glad to see the back of Devon.

This time last year, he was the hero as his improbable goal direct from a corner sealed City's Football League status at Torquay.

But this season there's no southern comfort. Just two weeks since his unfortunate own-goal at Plymouth, another Potter blooper played a significant part in City's downfall at St James' Park last night.

Perhaps a team-mate's shout was lacking, but after Potter was caught napping in possession Exeter midfielder Glenn Cronin was able to release Christian Roberts in the clear.

Matt Hocking stuck out a desperate - perhaps reckless - boot, down went Roberts, to the spot pointed referee Lee Cable and Paul Buckle swiftly dispatched the penalty into the roof of the net. Game over.

Potter's intervention, or lack of it, was, of course, not the sole reason City lost last night.

Indeed, it was less telling than that witnessed against the Pilgrims.

But this time around, coming as it did just seconds from full-time, it was more achingly painful, more acutely felt than at Home Park.

After City had taken the lead on 53 minutes the Minstermen had looked odds-on to claim a second successive win and take a giant step closer to safety.

Even a point would have been more than satisfactory but from cake-walk to catastrophe inside 40 minutes, to leave with nothing was as gut-wrenching as it was mystifying.

The first half had been characterised by a distinct lack of atmosphere, a distinct lack of passion, nominal chances and little in the way of football.

It perhaps said it all that the six hour trip from North Yorkshire to Devon's deepest, darkest depths, spent mainly looking at mile on mile of tarmac had offered more in the way of entertainment.

The only incidents of note in the first 45 minutes was a Lee Bullock scuffed effort that Exeter 'keeper Arjan Van Heusden managed to clumsily push around the post and a Geoff Breslan hoof high and mighty over the City bar from the edge of the area.

But if it had been tedious and unappealing then that will not have mattered one jot to City, more a glowing endorsement of a job well done.

Disrupted by injuries, with a midfield made up largely of teenagers and the memories of that meek surrender the last time City took to foreign soil - a 4-0 hammering at Cheltenham - still lingering, the cautious approach was understandable.

It looked more than justified and indeed a stroke of tactical genius then when Lee Nogan, a half-time substitute, nodded Potter's corner home just minutes into the second-half.

There was still a long way to go of course, but with City's defence rigid and resolute in the extreme, City's midfield concentrated and determined, there looked no way back for the Grecians, who had been simply woeful up to that point.

Indeed, if blame had to be apportioned for the tedious first half offering then the finger need only be pointed then prodded at Exeter.

The Grecians had played like a side who wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere but St James' Park. It looked all too much of an effort.

But just as Nogan's half-time introduction went on to prove itself a particularly smart move from City, Exeter's substitutions proved even more telling.

Within minutes of City taking the lead, Grecians boss John Cornforth replaced midfielder Martin Barlow with Cronin and striker Graeme Tomlinson with the forceful Steve Flack.

Flack's height and muscle suddenly gave Exeter some much needed presence and impetus.

He promptly heralded his arrival by directing a header wide from just eight yards.

A minute later and Cronin too had an immediate but even more decisive impact.

Snaffling possession from Aidan O'Kane, his carefully weighted pass released Roberts, who still had much to do but from the right-hand corner of City's penalty area the Exeter striker flashed an excellent low drive past Alan Fettis and into the left-hand corner of the goal.

As disappointing as it was to be pegged back, there was still little to suggest City's hard-nosed endeavours would prove, quite literally, pointless.

Fettis positioned himself well to keep out Flack's side-foot from 12 yards while at the opposite end Jon Parkin's teasing free-kick bounced tantalisingly in the Grecians' goalmouth but evaded everyone in a City shirt.

It didn't seem to matter. Neither side looked really desperate to win the game.

But then came Potter's dalliance, Hocking's lunge and Buckle's blast.

City's world had been turned upside down and without a point in the bag the long journey home no longer seemed so appealing.

Exeter City:

Scorers: Roberts 64m, Buckle 88m (pen)

Van Heusden, Buckle, Curran, Watson, Power, Breslan (Richardson 79m), Ampadu, Barlow (Flack 57m), Roscoe, Roberts, Tomlinson (Cronin 57m)

Subs, not used: Fraser, Whitworth

Bookings: Roberts 66m (foul)

Sent-off: None

York City:

Scorers: Nogan 53m

Fettis 6, Hocking 6, Basham 7, Parkin 7, Potter 6, Brackstone 7, Wood 6, Brass 7, O'Kane (Emmerson 69, 6), Bullock 7, Mathie 6 (Nogan 46m, 7)

Subs, not used: Howarth, Fielding, Darlow

Bookings: Hocking 88m (foul), Brass 88m (dissent), Wood 90m (foul) Sent-off: None

Attendance: 2,038

Referee: Lee Cable (Woking)

Updated: 10:01 Wednesday, March 20, 2002