Manager Terry Dolan admits the painful reminder of a Ninian Park nightmare will be spurring York City on to revenge when promotion chasers Cardiff arrive at Bootham Crescent tomorrow.

Back in November City suffered a 4-0 drubbing in Wales and Dolan still winces at the memory.

"We will be reminding the players of that - although they shouldn't need any reminding," he said.

"We got turned over fairly easily down there because they scored two goals in the opening five minutes and we made it difficult for ourselves."

But while a York victory would put Cardiff's promotion celebrations on ice, Dolan insisted his main concern was finally ending City's lingering relegation fears.

"We are not safe yet but the four points we picked up against Halifax and Hull were very valuable.

"We face another difficult game this weekend but the games are running out for the teams below us and if we do pick up three points on Saturday we might be able to say we are virtually safe.

"But it is not going to be easy. Cardiff are a strong team and they score a lot of goals but they tend to be better at home and hopefully we can take advantage of that."

Dolan is delighted with the way his team had bounced back from defeat against Plymouth with two battling displays against Halifax and Hull.

"I want us to be a team that is difficult to beat and we are proving that now," he said.

Updated: 09:32 Friday, April 20, 2001