IT was the same old story for York City, but this time the ending had a cruel twist.

Not only was there a prolonged demonstration by disgruntled fans but also - and perhaps more crucially - City found themselves at the foot of the entire Football League.

For weeks the thought of relegation to the Nationwide Conference has been a little distant, a bit fictional. Now it is a real threat.

City are not too big a club, nor too good a club to go down.

Clubs don't avoid relegation because they have a good youth policy or because they have a tidy ground.

Relegation does not go away even if the books are balanced.

To avoid relegation, clubs need to win points on the pitch and, with one point in seven games and one goal all year, Terry Dolan's men are not doing that.

Against fellow strugglers Exeter, City yet again handed the opposition a 1-0 lead and, again, when they needed a bit of fortune, Lady Luck turned the other way.

The Minstermen did play the neater football for most of the match, but the Grecians played to a game-plan of getting men behind the ball.

It worked perfectly as they increased their unbeaten run to four games with a 3-0 victory.

City, having already had a let off in only the second minute when Jamie Campbell screwed a sitter wide of the near post from five yards, fell a goal down just three minutes later.

Mark Sertori won the ball off Exeter dangerman Christian Roberts but, when trying to play it simple to Barry Jones, merely knocked it back into the path of Roberts on half-way.

The speedy striker out-paced the defence and slotted the ball past goalkeeper Alan Fettis.

City thereafter had more of the possession as Exeter were even more content to soak up pressure.

At times they played the ball around well and got in plenty of crosses from both sides. But, barring a couple of weak Lee Bullock headers, Arjan van Heusden's goal rarely came under serious threat.

Indeed, City's best bet for a goal came via the left boot of full-back Stamp.

On 27 minutes he screwed a 25-yarder not too far wide, and used that effort as a range-finder for his next attempt two minutes later.

However, his 30-yard blaster crashed against the bar and rebounded to safety off the diving van Heusden's head.

Lady Luck frowned on City twice more in the run-up to the half-time interval

On 40 minutes, the tall Steve Flack raced clear on to John Cornforth's through ball. The defence looked for the offside flag but the linesman shook his head and 'keeper Alan Fettis - who five minutes earlier had denied Roberts a second after a similar breakaway - could not prevent Flack making it 2-0.

Then, three minutes later, City thought they had given themselves a lifeline when skipper Steve Agnew's 22-yard shot was spilled by van Heusden and debutant Lee Nogan knocked the rebound home.

But this time the flag did go up, though Nogan had seemed to run from an on-side position.

No-one will ever know what might have happened had the goal been given, but it wasn't and City's fate was sealed on 66 minutes when Flack notched his second.

The striker ran down the inside left channel latching on to a chip by Graeme Power, which caught out centre-back pairing Sertori and Colin Alcide.

The striker's close-range drive was superbly blocked by Fettis but the ball looped up in the air and Flack beat Alcide to it to bundle it home.

Although York substitute Scott Emmerson had a couple of half-chances in the final few minutes, Exeter could have easily made it 4-0 when Fettis's mistake saw Kwame Ampadu's cross-cum-shot roll across the face of goal.

A chorus of boos greeted the final whistle and the chants of 'Dolan out', which had begun much earlier on the terraces, continued in earnest outside the ground.

YORK CITY: Alan Fettis 6; Barry Jones 6, Colin Alcide 6, Mark Sertori 5, Neville Stamp 6 (Kieran Darlow, 56mins, 5); Lee Bullock 6 (Scott Emmerson, 67mins, 6), Steve Agnew 6, Leigh Wood 6 (Nick Richardson, 72mins), Wayne Hall 6; Lee Nogan 7, David McNiven 5.

Subs not used: Russell Howarth, Mark Bower. Booked: Bullock, foul; Wood, foul. Sent off: None. Man of the match: It's always hard to pick a best player in a 3-0 defeat, but debutant Lee Nogan was busy up front and was unlucky to have a goal ruled out.

EXETER CITY: Arjan van Heusden; Mark Rawlinson, Jamie Campbell, Neil Whitworth, Graeme Power; Paul Buckle, John Cornforth (Lee Zabek, 90mins), Kwame Ampadu, Andy Roscoe; Steve Flack (Alex Inglethorpe, 90mins), Christian Roberts (Graeme Tomlinson, 90mins).

Subs not used: Stuart Frazer, Noel Blake. Booked: None. Sent off: None. Goals: Roberts 5, Flack 40, 66.

Shots on target: York 2, Exeter 5.

Corners: York 7, Exeter 2.

Fouls committed: York 8, Exeter 14.

Half-time: York 0, Exeter 2.

Referee: Graham Frankland (Middlesbrough). Attendance: 3,030