Eight years ago, York City surrendered their 75 year membership of the football league by relegation to non-league football. Ever since then they have remained in the Conference, or Blue Square Premier as it is called these days, languishing in a league they should not be members of.
Yet signs of progress have recently emerged, as they reached the play-off final last season where they lost to Oxford United. However, an abysmal start to this season, culminating in the sacking of manager Martin Foyle, saw Gary Mills take charge in October. Mills, a journeyman pro and a veteran of the non-league scene, has overseen a remarkable turnaround, with the Minstermen steadily climbing up the table and Mills winning manager of the month for November in the process. To top it all off, the club recently reached the 3rd round of the FA Cup, where they have drawn an away tie at Premiership high flyers Bolton Wanderers, who just last week received both manager and player of the month awards, in the forms of Owen Coyle and Johan Elmander. Ties like this do not come around often, and City hope to take over 2000 fans to the Reebok in early January.
As a long suffering fan of Leyton Orient, seeing the demise of York strikes close to home. While my club have established themselves in League One, York, with a similar sized fanbase and history, have gone the other way, and have struggled to regain their league place. Their stadium is well up to league standards, they attract gates of about two-and-a-half thousand a game, larger than quite a few League Two clubs, and have a sizeable budget for their league. Players and managers come and go, yet the fans and the staff at the club remain loyal and supporting, despite their recent plight. The faithful whinge and moan at the players, yet so do every club’s fans. A man sitting behind me at the 1st round 3-0 drubbing of League Two high flyers Rotherham at Bootham Crescent last month told me how, despite that result, he was going to stop coming to games after witnessing the performances earlier this season. Yet the club is in his blood, and sure enough, he attends every game like always. Clubs at this level do not do fair-weather fans.
I have only managed to attend one City match so far this year, yet I cannot wait to return. The people are friendly and the club’s football is neat and tidy; indeed York City absolutely outclassed a Rotherham side who are favourites for promotion this season, keeping League Two’s hottest property Adam Le Fondre, already nearing 20 goals for this season, completely anonymous for the entire game. After beating Conference new-boys Darlington in the 2nd round, City were drawn against the Premiership outfit, and fans and bookies alike sense a possible upset as York attempt to embarrass the millionaires. I’ve bought my club scarf already, and given Orient’s dull sounding 3rd round tie away to Norwich, a little birdie tells me I might be singing City songs on the Reebok terraces come the 8th January.