Defiant York City manager Alan Little dismissed the charge his side were fodder for the drop.

As he pondered on the gloomy end to a week in which the glare of media attention had been on himself and his brother Brian, the Stoke boss, City's manager was convinced the Minstermen would get it right.

"I think there's more to come from my side. I do not think we are relegation material," he declared.

"With greater self-belief this side can still do something this season."

The York manager insisted City had lacked a certain self-confidence in the opening stages of Saturday's game, but he savoured a fight-back in which he believed they bested the front-runners led by his elder brother.

"It's just a little bit of self-confidence in ourselves to come to places like this and do well. We created chances, but never took them and that's the difference between us. We have bossed the game for long spells without any joy."

Of the media scrum that surrounded the build-up to the clash of the Little brothers York's boss said that was not the big issue.

"It was all about Brian having a job to do and me having my job to do. The statistics show that Stoke have won and I can't argue with that."

The Stoke manager said he failed to be pleased by putting one over his brother, preferring to describe the hosts' victory as a 'decent day's work'.

He added: "It was a fairly economical performance by us. We never played well and the second-half was poor, but we are still at the top of the table.

"I cannot for one minute say there was any pleasure from beating my brother. We both had our managers' heads on.

"And I don't think he and I would ever fall out. Anyway, he is too big for me. I would want him on my side."

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