YORK City will travel to Gainsborough Trinity on Saturday knowing they must contain a player who Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho once failed to keep off the scoresheet on his way to taking Porto to UEFA Cup glory.
Mourinho is renowned for his mean defences but Gainsborough's star striker Stanley Udenkwor managed to breach Porto's back line by scoring a goal in Polonia Warsaw's 2-0 first round, second leg victory over the Portuguese stars three years ago.
Porto had earlier won the first leg 6-0 and Mourinho's men went on to lift the 2003 UEFA Cup by beating Celtic in the final the following spring.
Nigerian-born Udenkwor, meanwhile, moved on to Azerbaijan League football before turning up at Conference North outfit Trinity this season.
City boss Billy McEwan was informed of the well-travelled 24-year-old's availability before he joined Gainsborough but declined to pursue any interest and said: "He's certainly done quite well for them. He's got a bit of pace and puts himself about so we will have to concentrate at the back."
Udenkwor is currently being preferred to former Minstermen trialist Jon Rowan as veteran David Reeves' striking partner and his presence in the starting line-up for the last three games has coincided with victories against Leigh RMI (2-1), Barrow (3-2) and Stalybridge Celtic (1-0).
Four-goal top scorer Reeves, 37, scored 218 times in 756 matches as a professional during a career that spanned spells at Sheffield Wednesday, Scunthorpe, Burnley, Bolton, Notts County, Carlisle, Preston, Chesterfield, Oldham and Scarborough.
Gainsborough are likely to field four other players with first-team experience at Football League clubs in Alex Higgins (QPR, Boston), Adam Burley (Sheffield United), Wes Parker (Grimsby) and Liam Needham (Sheffield Wednesday).
Former Grimsby striker Rowan is also expected to be on the bench alongside player-coach and ex-Sheffield United, Wrexham, Scunthorpe, Scarborough and Boston midfielder Steve Charles, who is now 45.
But another former Scarborough player - Clint Marcelle - is unlikely to be involved, despite starting the season with the Northolme club. Midfielders Danny Steadman and Ryan Hindley are also set to miss out because of injury.
Updated: 10:37 Friday, October 21, 2005
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