Angry caretaker-manager Neil Thompson admitted he 'roasted' his Minstermen after their fall to hoodoo club Chesterfield.

HANDS TOGETHER: City's goalscorer Scott Jordan struggles to escape the clutches of Chesterfield's Marcus Ebdon at Bootham Crescent on Saturday. Picture: Frank Dwyer

The City boss labelled the performance a 'disgrace' and warned he would be ruthless in ringing the changes if City did not show a massive improvement on Saturday's 2-1 home defeat.

Thanks to other results, City stayed in 18th place to where they had slipped after Good Friday wins by relegation-menaced rivals Colchester United and Northampton Town. But they are only a mere two points and three places above relegation and another home game has gone begging.

As City prepared for tomorrow's trip to Luton Town Thompson railed he would not tolerate such a 'spirit-less' show as put up against the play-off chasing Spireites.

"I have got high standards and the players fell well below them. That was a disgrace out there and I have slaughtered them," railed Thompson.

"There was not much spirit until the last ten or 15 minutes. You can set them up with a plan but on the pitch they have got to take responsibility. They are the ones in the shirts." He added that if standards continued to dip then he would bring in other players, saying he had competition for places.

Thompson exempted only one City player from blame and that was runaway man-of-the-match Chris Fairclough.

The ex-Leeds United stopper was in impeccable form, Thompson saluting him as the example the rest of the Minstermen should follow.

"They should look up to Chris Fairclough. He was magnificent," purred the City boss. "His standards are so high because that's what's won him championships."

Despite the towering display by the 34-year-old Fairclough, on loan until the end of the season from Notts County, even he was unable to prevent City conceding what the manager slammed as 'sloppy goals'.

"We've defended well until just before half-time when we had chances to clear the ball and we didn't. Then Andy Warrington (City's goalkeeper) should have done better for the second goal. Yet that's the only shot they have had in the whole of the second-half."

What also irked the City boss was that his men lacked the 'know-how' to put Chesterfield under any pressure until the final minutes when midfielder Scott Jordan broke a near decade-long duck at Bootham Crescent by scoring against Chesterfield. His deliciously-delivered free-kick was the second such strike plundered by Jordan in successive City games after the previous 3-1 loss to Wigan.

"Again it's not a clean sheet, yet I thought we were a lot more solid than we have been for some time," he said.

"Every game is pressure and we've got eight games left and we've got to try to win every one. In this business there is always some sort of pressure. It's who handles it the best. We have got to handle it."

City were today checking on the fitness of central defender Martin Reed, who hobbled away with a knee injury. But City do have midfielder Mark Tinkler, who has shone at the heart of defence before this season, back after completing a three-match ban.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.