D-day for City's out-of-contract players

The legion of out-of-contract players in the dressing room will find out tomorrow if they are still in Stuart McCall's future plans.

But given the upturn in fortunes since the turn of the year, it may not quite be the ruthless cull that many supporters had been predicting.

Of course there will be departures to make way for new faces as McCall moulds "his" team but, as joint-chairman Lawn points out, the present squad have done themselves no harm over the second half of the season.

"The way we've played from January would be good enough for a play-off position," he said. "So I think fans have realised that we're not going to throw the baby out with the bath water.

"We know there are areas that need to be strengthened and we've been talking for weeks about how we're going to do that. But we're not going to ruin the present squad.

"I can see four or five new players coming in and then we'll be in a position where we can reach the play-offs as a minimum."

The annual guessing game has begun, though City are determined to keep their cards closely guarded.

Morecambe winger Garry Thompson is strongly tipped to make the move across the Pennines while others such as Mansfield's prolific frontman Michael Boulding are on the wish-list.

Boulding, who has notched 25 goals, is out of contract in the summer and will leave Field Mill regardless of whether they hang on to league status or not. City would love to get him but, as Lawn stressed, there will be plenty of others vying for his signature.

"People have got to be realistic," he said. "We're probably not the first option for Mr Boulding.

"I would expect there are clubs in the Championship looking at him.

"Don't get me wrong, I'd love to get him and he is certainly on our list of players we are trying to attract. But I bet he's on several lists.

"We will be trying our hardest to get some people of that calibre and perhaps maybe better, depending on what we can attract."

McCall has been drawing up his battle plans for some time. There will be no repeat of the hit-and-hope policy forced upon him 12 months ago when the juiciest targets had long been snapped up.

A year into the job - and well schooled in the ways of League Two - McCall will not settle for second best.

Lawn said: "It's nothing like this time last year when we didn't know what was going on.

"At this stage, we were still waiting to see whether Stuart McCall would get the Sheffield United job. They left it to the last minute to tell us and that left us to the last minute to get Stuart in, which meant we could not get started with new players.

"In the meantime, Dave Penney at Darlington had brought nine in!

"I don't think we should be bringing in nine players. We don't want to see that many trying to gel.

"Stuart knows who he wants and he's got them targeted. These aren't just people we're going to pluck out of the air.

"And we also have options. There aren't just five on a list - if those don't come off, then we have quality replacements in mind. Hopefully, everything is in place."

But Lawn again stressed the heavy dependency on season tickets being shifted. The pulling power of mega crowds is clear at basement- division level but City also need the financial muscle to bolster any spending.

Lawn is prepared to take risks to chase the promotion dream - but not at any cost.

"We've learned our lesson there. We aren't going to go out and take this club into a situation where we can't trade again. Julian Rhodes and myself are only custodians of this club for future generations of City fans and we never forget that.

"I hate being in this league more than anybody else and I will take calculated risks so that we can get out of it. But they will only be calculated.

"It won't be pie in the sky, unlike certain clubs who have thrown cash around and are in administration.

"So obviously a lot of what we can do is down to the season-ticket sales. People might think here we go again' but where else do they think the money comes from?

"Whenever I asked my dad for money as a lad, he'd point to a tree outside and say go and pick off as much as you want. I quickly learned there was no such thing as a money tree.

"Of course Stuart's budget is dependent on season-ticket sales. The costs of this place are astronomical.

"The biggest attraction we can give at the present is the crowd and that's why we want to see even more supporters here next season."

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