WHAT a difference a week makes.

City defender Chris Fairclough gets the better of Northampton's Steve Howard

Precisely seven days after York City resistance collapsed like a souffl at Luton, get-tough York City eked out a solid share of the booty at fellow strugglers Northampton Town and their battering-ram brand of football.

If City are on a learning curve then they negotiated several testing bends during 90 compelling, if hardly cultured, minutes at the Sixfields Stadium.

Level pegging did not alter City's Division Two status on a night when other results might have been kinder. But it maintained the vital distance ahead of their hosts and also demonstrated the Minstermen are gradually adding resilience to their relegation-repelling repertoire.

New City are dogged and die-hard. Old City might just have crumbled under the onslaught launched by the unsubtle Cobblers.Hanging on for a precious point this season has almost been as rare as snow in April. But City did, and in so doing delighted their fans.

They now boast a defensive organisation honed in his short spell at the club by Chris Fairclough. That conviction to contain all boarders spread from the back-line backbone out to midfield.

While they did not see much of the ball to play, pass or probe, Messrs Alan Pouton, Scott Jordan, Mark Tinkler and Martin Garratt toiled their socks off. And at the sharp end the axis of Marc Williams and Rodney Rowe constantly aggravated a Northampton defence of far greater physical presence.

Right across the pitch the homesters appeared to have stood for hours in a grow-bag. That gave them an obvious aerial supremacy, evidenced in a mere 39 seconds when totem-pole Steven Howard headed over from six yards.

Up against a barn-door brigade City were always going to be troubled by well-delivered crosses and set-pieces. The difficulty of their task was heightened by the teeth of a gale into which they started the Sixfields' six-pointer.

But Howard's waywardness, combined with stern defence, ensured the Minstermen held fast.

City's cause was aided no end by an offside trap slicker than a gigolo's haircut. And at the heart of it was co-ordinator supreme, Fairclough. It was not exciting, but it sure was effective and broke up the momentum Northampton were trying to inject.

The frustration of the Cobblers' clan deepened with City's first foray. Jordan applied midfield muscle to win possession then set loose Rowe. He went one way, then doubled back and slipped wide right to Williams. His marker Richard Hope backed off and Williams needed no second invitation. He let rip a left-footer that zipped across goalkeeper Billy Turley to its final destination.Northampton continued their raw-boned approach of lofted centres, but they were falling into the offside snare, or the trap of over-belting passes until a more measured attack yielded a leveller six minutes before half-time.

Instead of the expected levered long-throw, the ball went short to Ian Hendon and his cross was headed in crisply by Lee Howey.

Less than six minutes into the second-half City were caught dozing at another Hendon bomb. Carlo Corazzin guided a header into Kevin Wilson's run and the veteran scampered to outpace Mimms and hoist the ball in despite Barry Jones' attempt to divert it away.

But within two minutes City were back level with a Scott Jordan speciality. Dean Peer's handball was punished sublimely by Jordan.

Awaiting a Neil Thompson howitzer he instead glided in to curl the free-kick past Turley from almost 30 yards out.

Then there were astounding let-offs in both goalmouths. Tinkler acrobatically cleared Howey's jack-knife header off the line, and in seconds City were bearing down on goal with Rowe. His teased-in pass to Williams induced a low drive on the run from the Welshman. The ball skewered behind off Turley's body rolling towards the line. But despite the efforts of the City fans to suck the ball in as it's bounce died in goalmouth sand, John Frain arrived to fly-kick it clear.

Alarms clanged around each defence, longer in City's, but more penetrating in that of Northampton, where Williams almost snatched a stoppage-time winner - his whooshed drive fingered away by Turley.

More than just geography represented the difference between Luton and Northampton.In that week City have travelled an extra mile to close the gap in their frailty.

Now with a brace of home games to come the next seven days could be a week to work wonders.

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