YORK City midfielder Graham Potter has a hat-trick of reasons for wanting to spike the promotion hopes of Rochdale.

Potter admitted victory over Dale at Spotland tonight could take City a massive step closer to safety in their bid to escape the relegation mire.

Not only that, a win would see City end their season-long hoodoo of failing to record successive victories.

And as if that weren't incentive enough, Potter ssid he had something of a personal score to settle after City's last clash with Dale just two weeks ago.

Back then, City were held to a 0-0 stalemate and missed out on three points when Potter's first-half penalty was saved by Dale keeper Matthew Gilks.

"It would be nice to get the winner to banish the memory of that," he conceded.

"But it was just one of those things and the most important thing is we get a result tonight.

"It doesn't matter what happens to me and as long as we get the right result I'm not bothered.

"We haven't had back-to-back wins yet this season, so it would be nice to get that.

"It's going to be tough, it's away from home and against a team going for promotion. But it is one of our games in hand and if we can get a result it will put us in a strong position."

A three-point haul would move City six points clear of Halifax Town with two games in hand.

The Shaymen dropped further into trouble with a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Hull on Saturday.

With York's home game with Lincoln washed out, Potter admitted Halifax's defeat had been the one positive to come from the weekend.

"It would have been nice to get three points against Lincoln but it wasn't to be," he said

"We wanted to build on the result against Hull and our performances of late and put some daylight between us and the bottom.

"It means the Rochdale game has taken on even more importance, but it is up to us now to start picking up some points and getting up the table.

"The games are coming thick and fast and it is in our hands."

The weekend off did little to ease City's injury and suspension problems but what City's squad lacks in size it makes up for in quality, said Potter.

"Suspensions and injuries are the nature of this division," he said.

"We don't have that many players here and we just have to do the best that we can.

"But that will be the same for everyone in this division. At this time of year most teams find it tough. You have got to expect it.

"But we have players here who perhaps haven't featured but could come in and do a really good job.

"Players like Neville Stamp and Christian Fox haven't featured recently, but I'm sure they will before too long and they will be firing.

"They can perform at this level with no problem."

Potter has happy memories of Spotland. Last season's 1-0 win kick-started City's climb away from the foot of the table.

"It was looking a bit bleak then, but that win changed everything around," he admitted.

"It will be a tough game again but if we approach it well we can give everyone a good game.

"We've done it against the top teams this season but we've just tended to shoot ourselves in the foot at critical times."

Updated: 12:55 Tuesday, February 05, 2002