IT WAS interesting to read this week former York City manager Alan Little's calls for a radical shake-up of lower league football.

Little, currently staring Conference football in the face with relegation-haunted Halifax Town, says it's time the Third Division and Conference were merged.

Little said the new-look competition could then be split into a Northern and Southern Division to cut down on travel costs.

According to Little, the top two teams from each division would be promoted to Division Two, or just the champions with the second-placed sides facing each other in a play-off final.

Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn has warned as many as 30 clubs could soon go broke and has backed calls for regional-based leagues.

Like Little, he believes such a move will help clubs to cut costs and generate more revenue through more local derbies.

Certainly, there is a desperate need for some sort of review of finances in the lower leagues.

Although City's current problems do not necessarily stem from financial hardship as too many commentators in the national press seem happy to assume, there does seem to be a growing fear for the future of smaller clubs.

Clubs have been walking a financial tightrope for many years and that position is likely to become even more precarious if the reports this week that ITV Digital are looking to re-negotiate the £315million deal signed with the Football League at the start of the season prove true.

Under the current deal, due to run until summer 2004, Third Division clubs receive £150,000 per season.

However, there is a growing feeling among broadcasters that ITV Digital paid over the odds and that they cannot make the deal pay.

The two companies that own ITV Digital, Granada and Carlton, have launched a rescue plan which could see the much-needed revenue for Third Division clubs slashed.

As clubs look to address the harsh financial realities regionalisation is certainly worthy of future discussion.

But I can't help feeling it's a red herring.

More local derbies may for a short while generate more interest and so bigger crowds but after a while you can have too much of a good thing. If they become ten-a-penny then excitement and crowds will surely wane.

But the suggestion that by cutting travel costs clubs can save themselves is surely the biggest misnomer of all.

A look back at City's accounts for June 2000 to June 2001 showed the Minstermen spent £87,581 on travel and refreshments.

It's a considerable sum but it pales into insignificance when you consider City recorded overall losses of more than £1.25million in the same period.

Cutting down on travel costs may then save £50,000 at best but that saving will do little to safeguard a club's long-term future.

No, the biggest problem facing clubs is players' wages.

Last year saw City's payroll break the £2million barrier for the first time. Even the TV money, as important as it is, is small fry in comparison.

Until clubs address the real issue of salaries, perhaps enforcing a wage cap for clubs dependent on their division, then any structural changes, no matter how sweeping, will prove purely cosmetic.

CITY fans may be able to spring to the aid of researcher Thomas Leleux, who has contacted the Evening Press in a bid to solve a poser.

Leleux, from Ilkeston, Derbyshire, has drawn a blank in his endeavours to find information of a footballing oddity involving the Minstermen.

"I think during the 1950s a game featuring York City was the only one to finish 0-0 of all the matches played in the whole of the Football League on that day. If so, when and against whom?" he asked.

Leleux would also like to purchase a copy of David Batter's 'York City - A Complete Record, 1922-1990'.

"If anyone has a copy that they no longer want I would be interested in buying it off them depending on the price," he said.

Any City fans able to help Leleux in uncovering the statistic, or have a Batters' book they wish to sell, can contact him at 21 Flamstead Road, Ilkeston, Derbyshire DE7 5LS.

REPRESENTATIVES from the York City Supporters' Trust will be in attendance at a major national conference this month which will detail how football and rugby supporters can gain a bigger say in the running of their clubs.

The Supporters United Conference, to be held at Wigan's JJB Stadium on March 24, will encourage fans of both sports to form trusts and have a voice in the running of their club.

Having set their Trust up in record time and with the biggest attended launch given the club's fan-base, the City Trust is bound to be held up as a beacon at the event, organised by the Co-Operative Group and Supporters' Direct.

STRIKER Michael Proctor has regained the initiative in the Evening Press player of the year rankings.

Proctor, who had seen his lead pegged-back by last year's winner, Alan Fettis, in recent weeks, has gone clear again after his man of the match display and three-point haul against Luton last Saturday.

Fettis will have a chance to claw back the difference again on Tuesday, when a suspended Proctor will miss his first game of the season at Plymouth Argyle.

Jon Parkin maintained his solid form since arriving on loan from Barnsley by picking up the two-point award at Kenilworth Road.

The remaining point went to the luckless Peter Duffield.

Latest standings: Proctor 42pts, Fettis 39, Nogan 30, Bullock 26, Basham 17, Edmondson 16, Brass 16, Fielding 12, Hocking 12, Duffield 7, Smith 7, Cooper 6, Parkin 5, Hobson 4, Potter 4, Richardson 4, Howarth 3, Fox 1.

CITY Travel Club are running a coach to Tuesday's match at Plymouth. The cut-price cost is £20 for members and £22 non-members, which is £6 to £8 cheaper than normal. The coach leaves Bootham Crescent at 11.30am on Tuesday.

The trip to next Saturday's game at Cheltenham costs £18 for members, £20 non-members and will leave Bootham Crescent at 9.30am.

For further details telephone the club shop on 01904 62447 extension 4.

Meanwhile, a reminder to young fans that next Wednesday is City Reds' night, from 6pm to 8pm.

Updated: 11:43 Saturday, March 02, 2002