York City

A quick football history lesson on York City with Chris Forth

1922 Current club formed and elected to League in 1929 without even playing on its location as a railway city.

1932 Moved across York to Bootham Crescent, from where you can see York Minster over the rooftops and get high on the smells from the chocolate factory. The ground hosted York’s only Yorkshire CCC fixture, against Kent in 1890.

1948 6-1 win over Rotherham filmed for National Coal Board training film.

1955
Lose FA Cup semi-final replay to Newcastle, giving rise to a conspiracy theory that no Third Division side should be allowed to reach Wembley.

1958
Miss out on a place in newly formed Third Division on goal average.

1969 Third successive re-election campaign. Ted McDougall/Phil Boyer double act launched as fortunes change for the better.

1974-76 Spend two seasons in the Second Division, our only time at that level. Manager Wilf McGuinness still boasts to this day that  he took us from the Fourth Division to the Second in successive seasons, unfortunately in reverse order.

1977 Poll an improbable 49 votes out of a possible 48 at a re-election meeting. Celebrate by giving away free programmes for the next three seasons.

1982 Bristol Rovers’ Pete Aitken joins on loan but refuses a permanent contract, wanting something “closer to home”. He ends up in Hong Kong.

1984 First club to amass 100 points in a season.

1993 Our only trip to Wembley, beating Crewe 5-4 on penalties to climb out of the bottom division.

1995 Ten-man City win 3-0 at Old Trafford in the Coca-Cola Cup, with experienced players injured or cup tied. If United fielded their babes, then our team played in their nappies.

1999 Club currently enjoying its longest ever spell outside the bottom division. Next step may be to bid for the Territorial Army land behind the Popular Stand and do a Wembley by turning the pitch through 90 degrees.

From WSC 144 February 1999. What was happening this month