Bits and pieces - 2/9/03

[Will]

Lee Nogan attended last night's meeting of the Harrogate Minstermen at the Knaresborough WMC. Lee fielded questions from the floor and, while much of what he had to say was retrospective (interesting, but not particularly newsworthy), he did give a quick run-down of the injury situation at the Club.

Chris Smith is still several weeks away from a return. The popular defender underwent a hernia operation at the back end of last season and, despite featuring for part of the pre-season programme, has been struggling with a groin injury. While not serious, the only real tonic for the injury is rest.

Christian Fox (ankle) and Stuart Wise (knee) will both return to training later this week after sustaining injuries against Carlisle and Huddersfield respectively. This weekend's game against Rochdale may come too quickly for the pair but, with a full week's training behind them, there's a chance they could be in the squad for the trip to Yeovil.

Jon Parkin, despite making a playing return on Saturday at Lincoln, is still a few weeks short of fitness, having missed the vast majority of pre-season with an achilles problem. Nogs estimated that Jon will need roughly three-weeks to get back to his peak, and in that time, Lee said he will need to shed a bit of weight!

Summer signing Aron Wilford and youth team striker Lev Yalcin [ ] are both poised to resume training. Wilford has been struggling to acclimatise to the rigors of full-time training while Yalcin has been sidelined for 6 months with a groin problem. Both, however, are some weeks away from being ready for first-team action.

Suspension-wise, Nogs said last night that he wasn't confident that Darren Dunning's sending-off against Lincoln would be over-turned and today he was proved correct in his assessment. Once again, City appear to have been hard done-by in the disciplinary stakes, with TV footage showing that there was no contact between Dunning and Lincoln's Mark Bailey but first-year referee Kevin Friend - who had an awful game at Sincil Bank - has compounded his initial error by ruling the video evidence 'inconclusive'. Fortunately, City's midfield terrier will only miss one game for his supposed professional foul - City's first ever trip to Yeovil a week on Saturday.

In terms of player movement, yesterday's surprise departure of Scott Jones has opened the door for Richard Hope to be offered a permanent deal with City. Hope was signed on a one-month contract just prior to the start of the season after impressing in the pre-season game against Livingston. Having started every one of City's six league and cup games so far, and registering his first goal for the Club last week against Southend, the former-Blackburn man is set for talks with Chris Brass later in the week. With the departure of the only other naturally left-sided central defender at Bootham Crescent, Brass will be desperate to secure Hopey's services; and avoid a repeat of the Andrew Jordan fiasco, with the player impressing on trial and verbally agreeing to sign, only to then be tapped up by second division Hartlepool.

Click here for the latest on City's proposed move to the Monks Cross Stadium. Story by the York Evening Press.