YORK City manager Terry Dolan insisted there would be no let up in the search for points at his former club Hull City this afternoon.

The Minstermen manager hailed Saturday's 2-1 victory over bottom-club Halifax Town as a "massive" boost in the quest for safety.

The win lifted City to 17th place and took them eight points clear of the Shaymen, who have just six games left to rescue their Football League status.

But while delighted with the result the City manager maintains City cannot count themselves safe yet.

"It was a massive three points but we still need some more points and whatever we get at Boothferry Park will be very helpful to our cause for the rest of the season," he said.

City wing-back Darren Edmondson, who made his first appearance of the year as a substitute on Saturday, admits City's safety is almost assured.

"If you look at the table you can see how important the result was," he said.

"For Halifax to overtake us now it is going to take something special from them and a drastic loss of form from us.

"Another win out of our remaining five games should make us safe really."

City chief Dolan was delighted with the battling spirit shown by his players against Halifax.

"We were very committed we knew that we had to be. We are fighting for our lives as well. We still are.

"I thought we played some good football as well and maybe 2-0 was a fair reflection in the first-half.

"The turning point from our point of view was when we had a chance early on in the second-half and Mark Bower has hit the bar.

"The players have said Neil Redfearn has handled it and pushed it on to the crossbar but nobody saw it.

"Had we scored that goal then I think we would have ended up winning the game comfortably.

"We were on the back foot for a ten-minute spell but after that I thought we coped fairly well to be honest."

The only blight on the City copybook was the loss of skipper Steve Agnew, who was substituted in the first-half with a pulled hamstring.

"He said it felt similar to when he came off against Cardiff earlier in the season and he was out for about two or three weeks so whether it's the end of the season for him I don't know," said Dolan.

Updated: 11:49 Monday, April 16, 2001