FORMER Shaymen hero Michael Proctor is looking to rub salt into the wounds of rudderless Halifax Town tomorrow.

The York City sharpshooter spelt a productive loan spell at Halifax at the end of last season and became a firm fans' favourite as his goals - including one against City at Bootham Crescent - staved off the threat of relegation for Town.

Just a few months later however and Proctor, on loan at City from Premiership Sunderland, is looking to pile on the misery on Halifax, who were yesterday rocked by the resignation of manager Paul Bracewell.

Speaking to the Evening Press, Proctor admitted he enjoyed his time with Halifax and was surprised to hear of Bracewell's departure.

But the 20-year-old, who scored four goals in 11 starts with Halifax, insisted there's no room for sentiment in football.

"It will be an interesting one for me, I know quite a few of the lads down there," he acknowledged.

"I did score for Halifax at York last season but we got beat 2-1, hopefully I can get one against them at the weekend and return the favour for York.

"Obviously, I'm a York City player now and I want us to win, there's no doubt about that.

"I enjoyed my time down there and the fans were great with me but it would still be nice to get a couple of goals against them."

Proctor admitted he was stunned to hear of Bracewell's decision to quit just a few weeks into the season but maintains his departure will have done City no favours as they look to bounce back from the midweek 3-2 defeat at Shrewsbury.

"Since he went there he had turned the club around a little bit. It seemed quite a professional club and so I am quite surprised by the news," said Proctor.

"But it has come at a bad time for us because you tend to find when a manager leaves the players who are there are out to impress the new boss coming in.

"They will maybe be a bit more buoyant than they would otherwise have been and that has got to make it more of a disadvantage for us.

"But whatever is happening with Halifax, I still think we have got enough to beat them.

"We have got a chance to get back on track this weekend.

"I thought we played well the last few games before Shrewsbury and even then we played well in spells. We started a little bit slowly but we showed some character to get some goals at the end.

"That showed we have got a fighting spirit here and hopefully we can carry that into the weekend and get a win."

Former Fulham boss Bracewell had a tough first season in charge at the Shay with the club finishing - thanks largely to Proctor's goals - just two points clear of relegated Barnet.

This season, after an opening day 2-1 triumph at Lincoln, Town added a with a 1-1 draw at home to Exeter before successive defeats; 4-1 at Southend before Monday's 2-0 defeat at home to Oxford United

With Bracewell's assistant Ritchie Barker also resigning, player coach Neil Redfearn, who turned down a loan move to City last season, and former Scarborough goalkeeper Tony Parks have been placed in temporary charge.

With defensive linchpin Chris Clarke available after a bout of concussion Halifax may switch from a 4-3-3 formation favoured by Bracewell to a 5-3-2 line-up tomorrow.

Striker Jamie Wood is ruled out with a knee injury while there are doubts over influential midfielder Craig Middleton and winger Peter Wright, who both tweaked hamstrings against Oxford.

Former York City boss Alan Little has emerged as an early candidate to replace Bracewell.

- York City's intermediates will be looking to get back to winning ways when they travel to Hartlepool in the Football League Youth Alliance North East Conference tomorrow (kick-off 11am).

After beating Scarborough 1-0 in their opening fixture the City youngsters crashed to a 2-1 defeat at home to Scunthorpe last week.

Updated: 12:18 Friday, August 31, 2001