REGARDLESS of what happens at Stoke City this afternoon York City know they have to deliver the goods in four nights' time.

Enfield visit Bootham Crescent then, proudly sporting the banner of underdogs in the FA Cup first round replay. City have to topple that standard to restore confidence, not only in their own ability but in the faith of the home support.

City's fans have been ultra-patient, amazingly so during a 1998 of bleak Bootham Crescent fare.

Since January this year City have played 20 League and cup outings on their own ground. Yet long-suffering fans have seen their favourites triumph just three times with half the total drawn and the remaining seven games ending in defeat.

That's home service of the most dispiriting, disheartening, dismaying type.

The overall record of last season combined with this season, is better only because of the solid start made to the opening months of the 1997-98 term.

Even then the home record in league and cup is played 34 games, won 11, drawn 12, lost 11. Not much to write home about there.

So enter Enfield, if not into the lion's den then certainly into a lair where the gulf between the two sides should be made apparent.

The Ryman premier division E's will be plucky. They will not roll over as evidenced by their rally at Southbury Road last week. Their resilience will also be stoked by the fact that they are expected to lose.

But City must ensure they match both the expectations of their elevated status in comparison to their part-time visitors and their own supporters, who have been pitched into home-sickness for too long.

And it's not just the most vociferous Bootham Crescent fans who are downcast. More and more moderate voices, fans who are reasoned and rational rather than downright hostile, are despondent.

One such loyal supporter, one who travels home and away with his family for many seasons now, said patience is being exhausted. "I just don't know how long we can put up with this," he sighed.

"The club have had some terrible seasons lately and when we have promised, like early last season and then at the start of this, it's all gone pear-shaped." OUT of order were those City fans in the main stand of Enfield's ground who soured the afternoon with outbursts of foul language.

In close earshot to the City board a core of fans harangued and baited the directors. Most venom was spit-fired towards chairman Douglas Craig, as well as for the under-achieving Minstermen out on the park.

No-one should deny the right of fans to criticise and even the City chairman is not slow in hectoring the men in red. Passions indeed run high, long may it be that way. Football is a passionate sport.

But where abusive language is often the norm on the terraces, it has no place in the main home stand of a club as homely and hospitable as Enfield and in a stand housing many women and children.CITY'S unsatisfactory capital outing heightened the contrast between what football has become to what it once was.

Here was a tie, where the fans changed ends at half-time, where an ice-cream van was parked on the terracing to dispense its wares, where the tannoy announcer prefaced several messages with 'boys and girls', where the club sold out of programmes almost half an hour before kick-off.

Romantically quaint it ain't, but it's still heart-warming to encounter a ground, where the fortress mentality does not hold sway. However, 'the best of the Moody Blues' as the music before the game is stretching the point.

THE voluble announcer at Enfield latched on to City goalkeeper Bobby Mimms big-time.

Maybe it's because the north London club are starved of personalities, but every time he relayed the City team he prefaced Mimms with 'a well-known name in these parts'.

They were clear references to Mimms' time as number one at nearby Tottenham Hotspur, though the City custodian has revealed his time at White Hart Lane was hardly the most memorable in his lengthy League career.

UNDER pressure from Evening Press sports-desk colleagues the truth has to be told about City's recent slump.

The Minstermen have not won since yours truly returned to reporting duties from a two week-holiday.

Indeed during that vacation City beat Bristol Rovers 1-0 on September 26 - their last home win - and a week later beat Blackpool 2-1 - City's last victory of any kind up to press before this afternoon's trip to Stoke City.

And with missing that brace of victories, it means the Kelly eyes have not witnessed a City triumph since the September 8 3-2 thriller at Walsall. The word 'jinx' is now being bandied about quite regularly in Walmgate's sports world.

EX-CITY ace Ray Warburton has made a solid impact with new Rushden and Diamonds.

The central defender, surprisingly sold by Northampton Town to the conference club, was at the heart of the Diamonds' 1-0 downing of Nationwide side Shrewsbury Town.

In the second round Rotherham-born Warburton returns to his native Yorkshire to tackle fellow Conference crew Doncaster Rovers.

EXCELLENT news from the North-east of another former City favourite.

One-time striker Paul Baker bagged two goals in his second comeback game for Hartlepool reserves to beat Norton 4-3 in the Durham Senior Cup. Baker is battling back from three fractures of his legs in the past 12 months.

CITY'S free-fall from grace has been reflected in revised odds from bookmakers William Hill.

The Minstermen are now rated at 200-1 to win the Second Division title. Only six clubs are further out in the betting - Colchester and Wrexham at 250-1; Oldham 400-1; Lincoln City 500-1; and Macclesfield and Wycombe both at 1,000-1.

Leading championship choice are Fulham at 11-8, no doubt a price shortened with this week's £2million recruitment of Barry Hayles from Bristol Rovers. Second favourites are Stoke City, whom the Minstermen were visiting today. They are priced at 3-1.

TICKETS are now available for the Junior Reds' Christmas party at the social club on Monday, December 21. City players will be in attendance at the event from noon to 2pm with tickets costing £3 from the club shop.

BOOKINGS are being taken for coach travel to Wrexham on Saturday, December 5, should City see off Enfield in next week's first round replay. Coaches will leave Bootham Crescent at 11.30am at £9 for Travel Club members, £11 non-members.

There are still places on the family coach to Oldham on Monday, December 28, leaving at 11am at £8 for Junior Reds and £12 for parents, including admission to the game.CITY'S club shop will be open late until 8pm on Thursday December 10 and 17.

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