Somewhat unusually for a YCS member, I started supporting the team while living 60 miles north of York. I grew up in Durham, but my Dad spent a large part of his childhood living just around the corner from Bootham Crescent, and so the call of YCFC was (and still is) strong enough bring him on the 2 hour journey back to the homeland fairly regularly, with kids in tow. My step-grandmother still occupies the house round the corner, and the post-match bacon butties she provides are (depressingly) often the highlight of a trip to see the Minstermen.

My first memory of York City is a home game against Luton – a fixture with added interest since my Mum comes from Hertfordshire, and so would be the most likely contenders as her local side. I remember making opposing banners for my parents to wave during the match, and being somewhat baffled by their reluctance. What makes the match stick in the mind is not the quality of the game, but one of the opposition players sustaining a pretty bad head injury. I remember watching with interest as the bleeding and apparently unconscious player was stretchered off along the front of the family stand, a route which on reflection may have been somewhat ill-judged.

Concussed footballers aside, the whole experience was captivating. When the initial childish enthusiasm died down (I still remember the excitement of receiving a goalkeeper’s shirt for Christmas aged 9), the family connection kept me coming back despite surly teenage reluctance. I re-found a genuine enthusiasm for the game a few years later, and naturally gravitated back to the only team I had ever thought of as mine. When I went to university in Belfast, my attendance at matches was restricted to Christmas and Easter holidays, but I kept in touch with proceedings through a mixture of Ceefax and long match reports from my Dad via email and weekly phone calls.

Then came time to enter the world of ‘proper grown-ups’ and get a job (although I’ve since come to realise these aren’t the same thing). As for many, this meant moving to London, where I have been for the last 6 years. I can’t remember exactly how I heard about York City South, although I have a feeling my Dad saw a feature in a matchday programme and mentioned it. Some quick Google-based research revealed an upcoming social evening in a pub just across the river from my work place – clearly fate at work. I rocked up, unsure what to expect, and was greeted with warm enthusiasm and a quiz which established two things: a) that I knew far less about YCFC than anyone else there; and b) no one cared. A love of the game in general and York in particular was all that was needed to be welcomed into the fold. I’ve since been to many different socials in many different pubs, bringing each other through the lows and celebrating the highs enthusiastically (the promotion year AGM being a particular highlight). Joining YCS has brought me closer to the club I have always loved, even though I am (and always have been) geographically quite distant.

Accrington (Dec 26 2014 / Shippo The Lion) Meet Me