Fresh injury anguish will prevent former York City flier Graeme Murty from making a keenly-awaited return to Bootham Crescent tomorrow.

The luckless star has made just 27 starting appearances for Reading since his £700,000 move to Berkshire in 1998 and is now facing another spell on the sidelines after picking up a back injury in training.

It will be massive blow to Murty, who had admitted last week the lure of an FA Cup clash with City was spurring him on in his fight for fitness and a possible first-team recall.

Despite the loss of Murty, Alan Pardew's side will arrive at Bootham Crescent in good spirits having beaten Cambridge United 3-0 last week to consolidate their fifth position in Division Two.

And the Royals' manager this week moved to ease any right-side concerns by signing Frenchman Guillaume Norbert on a month's contract.

The 20-year former Arsenal right-winger was made his first appearance for the hoops in their 2-0 reserve team victroy over Leyton Orient on Wednesday and has an outside chance of featuring tomorrow.

Goals are certainly not a problem for the money-bags Royals - only Manchester United, Fulham and Chesterfield have scored more this season.

Leading the line are the Second Division's most potent duo, Martin Butler and Jamie Cureton, who have bagged 24 goals already this season. That total is four more than the whole City team have managed in the League.

Butler, a £750,000 buy from Cambridge in February, scored 24 times last season, while Cureton plundered 54 goals in two seasons with Bristol Rovers before his £250,000 move at the beginning of the current campaign.

Reading's £1million pound strike-force will be matched by a similarly expensive substitute bench.

The form of Cureton and Butler means Dwight Yorke's skipper in the Trinidad and Tobago national team, Tony Rougier, has been unable to claim a regular place in the starting line-up since his £340,000 move from Port Vale.

Also expected to be on the bench is former Tottenham midfielder Darren Caskey as Pardew proves he is no admirer of reputations.

A £700,000 recruit from White Hart Lane in 1996, Caskey was attracting interest from a number of top clubs after scoring 23 goals from midfield last season.

Despite such sharp-shooting - reckoned to be a Football League record for a midfielder - Caskey was dropped to the bench last week for the win over Cambridge and has been challenged to win his place back by Pardew.

With the central midfield partnership of Phil Parkinson and Keith Jones boasting almost 1,000 senior appearances between them the 26-year-old Caskey faces a stiff task to regain a starting berth.

The only expected change to the line-up from that which defeated the Us last week is the return of right-back Ricky Newman.