York City boss Terry Dolan may have stuck to his vow of not praising his players - but his silence spoke a thousand words.

Dolan was so upset with his side's performance against Swansea on Tuesday night - just 48 hours after heaping praise on them for their 0-0 draw against Colchester in the FA Cup - that he vowed to give his players the silent treatment.

But the silence that met the waiting press outside the York City changing room last night seemed to be a clear sign Dolan was pleased the Minstermen had responsed to that defeat by holding high-flying Mansfield 1-1.

Dolan did manage a few words before heading home - although he deliberately avoided any mention his team, no matter how he was prompted.

"I thought it was a competent performance," he said. "I'm not saying a lot - you know what I said on Tuesday night, so work it out from there.

"It was a competent display and if Mansfield have as much luck for the rest of the season then they'll be certainties for promotion.

"We're now looking forward for Tuesday night now."

Goal hero Lee Nogan, who made way for Alex Mathie after 86 minutes, did not quite follow the lead of his boss - managing a few more words for the gathering scribes.

Nogan, who netted his seventh of the season with an opportunist effort, echoed Dolan's thoughts on Mansfield's luck.

"I think it was with about 20 seconds or so to go when they scored, but that is football - when you struggling a bit and in of some consistency against a top of the league side who is flying then they seem to get the bounce and the ricochets," he said.

"To be fair to them though, they kept going to the end."

Nogan, too, had his slice of luck as he profited from Les Robinson's woeful back header to slot the ball home.

"I know Les (Robinson) from my Oxford days, so he must have been sorry for me or something!" said Nogan. "I just read the flick really, the keeper came in-between, but fortunate for me it fell nicely.

"It was just one of those things. I was tempted to say something to him as I went back past him, but I thought better of it."

Updated: 11:44 Saturday, November 24, 2001