NEVER can two clubs' contrasting fortunes have been as cruelly exposed as at KitKat Crescent on Saturday.

Historically, Hartlepool and York City have been perennial lower league rivals and, as recently as February 2003, the two sides were battling out a goal-less draw in front of the Sky cameras.

Last season, however, almost 60 places separated the two clubs in English football's pyramid with City struggling in the Conference while Hartlepool missed out on promotion to the Championship by the narrowest of margins in a Millennium Stadium play-off final.

And, while the Victoria Ground club are now attracting the likes of talented ex-Minstermen Lee Bullock and Michael Proctor, City are turning to a mixture of trialists described as "liquorice allsorts" by manager Billy McEwan.

The gulf in class between the two teams was painfully illustrated as the visitors romped to a 4-0 victory.

City started brightly and almost forged ahead when captain Mark Hotte's header rattled the crossbar.

But the visitors netted with their first attack on 11 minutes when Thomas Butler ran clear of the City defence and rolled the ball past an advancing Chris Porter.

Hartlepool doubled their advantage on 25 minutes after trialist James Dudgeon's clumsy lunge felled James Brown in the area and Gavin Strachan converted confidently from the spot.

Eight minutes later, Effion Williams added a third goal, tapping in after Jon Daly had broke the offside trap and passed unselfishly across the face of goal.

Hartlepool completed the scoring nine minutes into the second half when Brown profited from a Nathan Peat slip to fire a low drive past Porter.

The pick of City's trialists in this match was the excellently-named Emmanuel Panther, who proved his worth as a midfield anchor man, always passing the ball sensibly.

Afterwards, McEwan said: "We were playing a tough side and it was a good test for us. The performance wasn't bad considering we had a lot of trialists on view.

"Early on, we took the game to them but we were unfortunate to concede a goal on the break and then, all of a sudden, we found ourselves 3-0 down but the result was not important."

City: Porter (Afandiyev, 63), Law (Mudd, 59), Dudgeon (Stewart, 46), Hotte, Peat, Yalcin (McStay, 33), Panther (Ekoku, 68), Convery, Dunning, Donaldson, O'Neill (Mallon, 81). Subs not used: Merris, Pounder.

Hartlepool: Konstantopoulos, Clark (Craddock, 46), Robertson (D Williams, 70), Strachan (Bullock, 70), Nelson, Jones, E Williams (Sweeney, 63), Humphreys, Daly, Brown (Boyd, 62), Butler. Subs not used: Llewellyn, Proctor, Provett. Attendance: 715.

Updated: 11:15 Monday, July 25, 2005