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YORK CITY SOUTH |
Billy Plutch
Welcome to the exploits of Billy Plutch, you know him, you see him wandering around at every City game.
| 2010. |
| March 6. Dear Blog, its looking more and more that my February 1st entry is coming true. |
| February 27. City lose. Foyle says he sensed something wasn't quite right in training. Come back Andy Ferrell. |
| February 6. Even our old boys are doing their bit to help us up the league. Chris Smith, well done for Tamworth's winner against Stevenage today. |
| February 3. Vanessa Perroncel - Chelsea's new home ground? |
| February 2. John Terry, one report praises his personal qualities, his reliability, honesty, fortitude which it says complement his on field attributes, bonkers bravery, faultless positioning and distribution. It could equally apply to his personal life. |
| February 1. Whilst its good that Martin Foyle has freshened up his squad on transfer deadline day by releasing Andy Ferrell, a squad player and signing a Divison 2 player, I wonder what impact it might have on Richard Brodie who has lost his bosom buddy and on team dynamics with the split of the Fun Boy 2, own Ant and Dec. |
| January 31. Whatever the rights and wrongs (and they're all wrongs) of the John Terry case, it struck me as rather strange that a key factor in the decision as to whether Terry retains his England squad place is the viewpoint of Wayne Bridge. It seems that if Bridge is happpy to play alongside Terry, then Terry retains his place. So, we're giving a player, who, when the popular press come to picking their next squad, view the deputy left back role as "anyone but Bridge", the power to de-select the England captain, one of the few England players who might just merit a place in a World XI. |
| January 13. Up and down the country, Division 2 and Conference centre backs have an extra spring in the jump, added bite in their tackle and thoughts of a big new contract in their mind. Following Sol Campbell’s leap from struggling Notts County defender to Champions League / Big 4 club, they’re all queuing up to be the next in line. Alan O’Hare to Manchester United, Jimmy Sangare to Chelsea and Luke Graham to Liverpool. |
| January 3. After his illness last summer, it was good to see John Hartson looking so well on the TV today. |
| January 2. Unable to make Stoke due to work, I avoided all FA Cup news until I sat down in front of the television to watch all the highlights, hoping beyond hope that City had caused an upset. First match on, the evening kick off, Reading v Liverpool. Reading score first and the muppet of a commentator blurts out, "Could this be the first shock of the day?". Muppet. |
| 2009. |
| November 23. Muppets, after going to great lengths to have a low profile hearing and after over 3 months of preparation, the Subway 4 case is adjourned to January 14. |
| November 20. Getting nervous as the big day approaches. Monday 23rd, the Subway 4 in court. There appears to be a news black out, nothing's been said about it. Surely the court isn't afraid that it will be mobbed by rampaging, demented City fans trying to influence the court. Jorvik Reds, now is your chance to be the new Guy Fawkes. Or, I'll get my mate Chris at the MOJ to pump some happy gas through the building infrastructure. Or perhaps, he's already hacked into their computer system and deleted the case. |
| November 11. Not missing The Press' City coverage. Jump onto the club's web site, all I need to know delivered in in an upbeat style. No put downs. And for the non biased, there are plenty of fan's web sites which cover City. All coverage that The Press used to provide. |
| November 10. In case you were wondering why there were no City players in England's squad to play Brazil, they, like Luke Young, had previously informed Fabio Capello that they'd retired en masse from international football. Michael Ingham is still available for Northern Ireland. Equally, recognising the importance of The Conference and the "persuasive powers" of Paul Fairclough in furthering their careers, the players remain available for call up by England C and their Welsh and Scottish equivalents. |
| November 9. Not sure if it was a fix or not, but over 50% of the respondents to our early season poll had City winning promotion via the play offs. No one was brave enough to put us down as champions, no one predicted us to make the play offs and not gain promotion. Later voters cast a more optimistic response. Sangere narrowly pipped Ferrell to be our player of the season. |
| November 7. Crewe Ker-ching. £18,000 in prize money and probably a five figure sum as our share of gate receipts from the 3,070 crowd today. Add to the £12,000 prize money and gate receipts from the Bedworth game and our FA Cup run has probably netted us over £50,000 already. Round 2 victors win a further £27,000 in prize money. Round 3 is a whoppping lottery jackpot size £67,500. Not forgetting gate receipts and, whisper it quietly, television appearance money. |
| November 2. Just thrown The Press into the bin. Coat on and down the newsagent to cancel my subscription. First wobble and the paper is on City's backs again. |
| November 2. Congratulations to Coleen and Wayne Rooney on the birth of their first born. Have they followed the Beckham baby naming convention or have they started a new trend, using the names of cars from the lower end of the market. What’s next? Trabant Rooney or Punto Rooney. You’d have thought they could have gone a bit more upmarket. Mercedes or Ferrari Rooney for a girl or Enzo or Bentley Rooney for a boy. |
| October 31. Leicester announce Edgar Davids is not joining them. I can announce Cristiano Ronaldo is not joining York. He didn't answer his phone when we rang him with details of a contract that would more than match his Real Madrid contract. |
| October 17. Leaving home in Swiss Cottage this morning, I bumped into Alex McLeish outside Birmingham's overnight hotel. Chatted about Sir Alex Ferguson, that lead onto York City. When I told him about our 2 top scoring strikers, his eyes lit up. He pummelled me for info, even if he did refer to one as Michael Hash. - sent by Blackberry |
| September 20. Australia - Failures to the end. Already 6 down in the one dayers, the Aussies fail to stop England completing the first ever 7-0 rout in a one day international series. |
| September 5. Good job I deleted the Richard Brodie comment from 2 weeks ago (August 22). |
| September 1. What a cunning plan. Play both 20 - 20 games at Old Trafford with late afternoon starts. Late August / early September, they're bound to be rain affected thus saving Aussie blushes. |
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August 29. In the good old days of new frontiers, what went into print stayed in print. After my comments about Richard Brodie at Hayes, I can now hit the delete button and euologise over the hard working, hard running Richard Brodie. I always thought he ran his socks off. PS Did you notice his penalty, calmly placed into the very spot he'd praticed at Hayes a week earlier. |
| August 23. 5:50. The Oval. The end of summer. For the Aussies, it marked the end of their winter as well as their Rugby Union side lost to New Zealand in The Bledisloe Cup over the weekend. What, if any, sports are they good at? Anypom for tiddlywinks? PS Their soccer must be in a desperate state having imported Daniel McBreen to pep up their premier division. |
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August 22. Hayes 1 - York 1. Having listened to our first 4 games on the radio, I was expectant. Either we had an off day or nothing's changed. Its easy to see why Brodie is on the bench, not sure what came first, loss of form or loss of confidence. His goal record and never say die attitude deserve a starting place. PS Hope there was a point about his penalty practice before the kick off. With just the subs on the pitch, he placed the ball on the penalty spot and calmly stroked it into his bottom left hand corner of an empty goal. Meanwhile, Gash remains off the pace, lack of confidence or lack of pre season training and fitness? Whatever, the boo boys behind the goal won't inspire him. Son asked, why they swear so much, didn't know how to answer, but just glad 7 year old daughter stayed at home. Although thinking back a few weeks, when doing some English with son, I asked him, what prefix starting with the letter "S" do you put in front of standard meaning not very good. As he was thinking, daughter leant across the table and confidently anwered with a 4 letter word starting with "S" in my ear. She obviously know it was a naughty word. The things they teach them in the playground nowadays. |
| August 21. Another summer day. The critics said we failed on Day 1, but even so, the Aussies failed much more spectacularly on Day 2. |
| August 20. Summer returns, at least for the morning and afternoon, not sure about after tea though. |
| August 15. What about Joleon "My heads all over the place" Lescott. I kept looking out for his head but it always seemed to be attached to his shoulders. I was expecting to see it pop up in unexpected places, maybe out of the trainer's bucket or as the subject of a spot the face in a crowd competition or even in a Manchester City shirt. Anyway, Everton 1 Arsenal 6, sounds more like score from a park game rather than the premiership. |
| August 8. Football season starts here. 82-5, Andrew Strauss, what sort of a football score is that? |
| August 7. Headingley. Test #4. In case you think its been a late decision to even up The Ashes by helping the Aussies, think again. Given their aversion to swing bowling, Headingley chopped down all the trees that surround the ground several years ago. Since then, its been a largely swing free wicket, unlike former days when the ball swung like a boomerang. Also, so the Aussies have less to whinge about if the weather remains inclement, we've improved the pitch's infiltration rate by 85% since May's one day international with the Windies was washed out, so we can't be accused of getting out of jail if it rains. |
| August 5. Did you read about those Aussies supporters fleeing back home. London travel agent offers loads of £10 one way plane tickets to Australia. Queues out of the door and down the street were queueing up overnight to grab them. Can't stomach defeat, leaving behind our glorious summer for winter. |
| August 3. Back at Edgbaston, so kind of Strauss to give the Aussies a gentle all day net in the middle honing their batting skills. At the same time trying hard to make the dervish from t’far side of t’ills break down once and for all. At least it keeps the Ashes on a knife edge for a bit longer. |
| August 1. Take advantage of the Edgbaston rain to go up to Halifax for our last friendly. Shouldn't have bothered. The question of the day. Why is Mark Hotte is still playing football? |
| July 30. We're even breaking the rules now to help the Aussies. Brad Haddin goes down injured after the teams have beem announced. Strauss, good fella that he is, breaks the rules to allow Graham Manou to take Haddin's place. Maybe we should allow them 12 if we're trying to even up the sides. |
| July 28. With the ECB’s spin doctors organising a wet summer and heavy rain for Edgbaston to keep the Ashes on a knife edge (and to help to avoid any further defeats for the Aussies), what do the Aussies do? Whinge about the weather! |
| July 27. Someone suggested I should be more social. Cheeky chappy, I thought, I'll fart when I want. Then he told me about Twitter and how you post short messages known as tweets. Not sure if that would make me a twit or a twat for posing (sic). |
| July 20. Not sure what else we can do to make an even game of the Ashes. We field a side with our best batter and our best bowler both crocked. We set the Aussies a lesisurely 260 a day over 2 days to win. And what happens? Australia fail again. What else can we do to give them a chance? |
| July 15. There's been a lot of talk recently about Freddie, the broken dervish from t’far side of t’ills, and his bowling not reaping the figures it deserves. Join the club Freddie, I've spent a lifetime watching City where our performances don't get the results they merit. |
| July 13. Desperately sorry to hear John Hartson's sad news. Not sure how cancer spreads from the testicles to the brain. But it might help to prove the old saying about a man's brain being in his pants. |
| July 12. We’re doing all we can to help the Aussies retain the Ashes. Having well and truly disposed of our successful 2005 captain, Michael Vaughan, we go to Cardiff, a neutral venue with Yorkshiremen Matthew Hoggard, Adil Rashid and Tim Bresnan excluded from the squad in favour of spinners who can’t spin and quickies who can’t take wickets. Even Australia did their bit to deny us. Having spent all winter debating which side has bowlers who can take 20 wickets in a match to secure victory, what do Australia do? They declare with 6 wickets down in Cardiff to deny us our chance of 20 wickets in a game. Then its onto Lords where England haven’t beaten Australia since 1934. Back in those days, 4 Yorkshiremen (Sutcliffe, Leyland, Verity and Bowes) were instrumental in England’s win. Ever since, we’ve gradually reduced the number of Yorkies in England’s team, but even so, think Sir Len, Raymond and Sir Geoffrey and you’ll notice it only takes one good ‘un to beat the Green Caps. Why we’ve even stopped playing them as a county since we beat them at Sheffield in 1968. Green caps, more Yellow Bellies. |
| July 1. Sorry to hear the news of Sheila Smith’s death this week. I remember back to the days of The Roof Appeal, New Frontiers and The Youth Development Fund and how she was very helpful, often going beyond the call of duty to help us to help the club. |
| May 31. Blues Strikes The Reds (or similar). I got my wish last summer when our summer shopping was largely done in early summer. Effectively we had first pick of the released dross, not the leftovers in July. I thought we were in for a good season. W Wr Wrong, Billy Plutch. This time, we did the same again. I’m underwhelmed at who we picked up. A winger who played for Oxford and Kiddy and wasn’t considered good enough for either this season, a left back released by Shrewsbury even before their Wembley play off game, low scoring and / or middle aged Conference South strikers. Not sure how many have the potential to play at a higher level. At least Clayton Donaldson, Andy Bishop (or even Nathan Peat) dropped down the divisions to come to York, hungry to make names for themselves. PS Chris Moore is back in York from his Parisian soujourn. |
| May 20. Déjà vu. I always knew there was a reason for learning French at school. Neal Bishop, whilst within his rights, has just walked out on Barnet without telling anyone and signed for Notts County. Just like he did 2 years ago when he walked out on City without telling anyone. Manners maketh the man. |
| May 14. What a pity York MP Hugh Bayley didn't put KKC as his second home. YCFC could have done with the money. Approx £25K, it could have been a nice earner. |
| May 9. What an anti climax. And that's before the game! What a desolate sight greeted me waking up Wembley Way 30 minutes prior to kick off. Some people, a few traders, hot dog kiosks closed. The car / coach park came into view. Way over in the distance, I spied 51 YCFC coaches and a few cars, the car park was more concrete than vehicles. Its fuller for Wembley's Sunday Market! Inside, not too many familiar faces. I don’t think it took too much effort to work out who was behind the flares and the ejections from the City end. On the pitch it wasn’t much better. Clutching at straws, who knows what might have happened if we scored first, we had a couple of chances in open play and a penalty appeal turned down. But once Stevenage scored, they got on top and we didn’t have a look in. |
| May 7. Just finished my research into the Conference South play offs and the new team we’ll face next season. Down at Hampton & Richmond, the highlight of the game was a big clearance out of play getting stuck in a tree overhanging the pitch, so despite the ball not even crossing the line, play was stopped. Thank goodness, the little mascot wasn’t expected to climb the tree to retrieve the ball. At Hayes, the soulless, faceless part of London, Hayes & Yeading FC is located on the outskirts of the town, no pubs to recommend, only a wide choice of curry houses. If you fancy a point, Hayes Bowling Club is as good as any. Once at the ground, you’ll find just one entrance and no segregation. Pity when they merged, they didn’t relocate to Yeading, at least you could have a drink in the marina under the Heathrow flight path. However, its still worth a trip to support the boys, Its possibly the closest we’ll get to Wembley next season. |
| 2008. |
| Nov 5. Bonfire Night. Roasting chestnuts on the bonfire or The Emirates to see Arsenal take on Fenerbahce. My choice? Pretty sanitised football, both teams were well organised, but with no spark, no width, no flair, no pace. Some might say that in many ways it resembled KKC. At least at KKC, the size of the stands doesn’t block the view of the fireworks outside the ground. |
| 2007. |
| Nov 1. Search over. All the way to Australia to sign a Bruce. Come on down, Daniel McBreen. |
| Aug 29. With our start, I'm off on a round the world scouting trip for a new dodgy centre forward, I might be gone some time. |
| Aug 25. Looking forward to today's Premiership fixtures after 2 referees are dropped for making mistakes last week. On the basis of being dropped for making a mistake, I'm expecting most games to be 5 a side today. |
| Aug 24. Another seaon landmark reached. Walking out of the ground after our Forest Green performance, my son turned to me and mentioned the dreaded R word, its first mention of the season, in fact for 2 seasons. |
| Aug 24. Found it a bit rich of Fergie threatening to report Liverpool for an illegal approach for Heinze after their shenanigans for Tevez, they practically had him in for a medical when West Ham were adamant he was their player and not for sale. |
| Aug 11. Leeds win at Tranmere. I'm confused. After Ken Bates took Leeds into administration in May how come he's a director of the new Leeds, how did he pass his fit and proper person test? |
| Aug 10. Tevez joins Manchester United. Not sure how he did it but can we use 3rd party ownership to tie players to contracts to get around the Bosman ruling. |
| July 20. Dear Diary, I must be more regular this season. Just like Craig Farrell. |
| July 19. Where did last 2006/7 season go to? Did they really finish Wembley? I blinked and missed our new signing, Craig Farrell,score a hatful of goals. |
| July 18. Where did last 2006/7 season go to? Did they really finish Wembley? I blinked and missed our new signing, Craig Farrell, score a hatful of goals. I must have missed it as I trekked the country, groupie to the stars as Ted Chippington and I, Ludicrous, hit the comeback trial. How about a Desperate Bicycles reunion. Meanwhile RIP Sema 4. |
| 2006. |
| September 24. My eldest is keeper for his school team. I promised him a pair of goalie gloves if we could find something City related. Off to the shops and we found “Stockdale” gloves, unfortunately they were full of holes, hiding behind them were the “Porter” range. Next to them was the “Endersby” range, my wife wasn’t very keen on them as they jumped off the shelf and groped her. They were sold out of “Evans” so we had a choice between “Kiely” and “Robinson”. As my lad is about the same age as Paul Robinson when he played for City we went for his gloves. |
| September 23. Did a search on YCFC on youtube and the first 2 results were Nathan Peat and world class footballers. |
| September 19. Have to get my glasses changed. I thought I'd gone to see City, but those yellow shirts were more like Brazil and who was that coloured striker doing all those brilliant flick ons?. |
| August 19. What a day, I've seen 2 City away wins in a week, when was the last time that happened, I can't remember it in over 40 years supporting City. |
| August 19. Sat next to 3 middle aged Middlesbrough supporters on the train down to London this morning. They were off to Reading and were discussing Sunderland's game at Southend. One thought Southend was near Reading, one thought it was in Cornwall and the third was adamant it wasn't by the coast. They were last seen wondering around Kings Cross looking for a train to Reading. |
| Summer. Good day, so good I can't remember exactly when, must be the heat. Good to see Chris Brass again at Yorkie and Kirstie's wedding. |
| April 22. Working this morning so couldn't get to Stevenage. Thought I'd try a D2 game and drove up to Darlo to see their new ground. Had a pleasant surprise when Chris Brass was announced in the Bury starting line up, a rare appearance. He scored a great goal after only 8 minutes, back to goal, facing his goal, 8 yards out, he did an overhead kick hit, it bounced off his forehead giving his own goalie no chance. Darlo 1 Bury 0. He deserves better. |
| April 18. Why all the fuss about the Highbury squirrel? Or for that matter, the rats on the Old Trafford pitch (and some would say elsewhere at Scum United) earlier this season. We've had animals on the pitch at Bootham Crescent on many occasions. Now, now, I know what you're thinking, but that's down the A64 and the donkeys at The McCain Stadium. I was thinking of lions, seals, foxes and panthers, Barry, Jimmy, Christian and Emmanuel. PS What's the difference between the Highbury squirrel and Spurs, the squirrel has European experience. |
| January 19. Can't believe my ears when I read Arthur tonight. Criticism for Chris Brass for taking the pay off. He negotiated a contract and he's fully entitled to his money. He was a good servant for the club, first as a player and then as captain he held the team together through our dark days as we almost went out of business. Maybe he was promoted too quickly to manager, but he was the fans choice at the time. Good luck for the future. |
| January 13 2006. Postie dropped a thick glossy brochure on my doormat this morning for East London's latest buy to let bonanza. It seems that Leyton Orient are building a block of flats behind each of the four corner flags at their Brisbane Road stadium. The price list suggests that the higher stories are more expensive, reflecting the less likelihood of having their windows put through by stray shots and being further from the inaction. The flats with a view over the pitch are cheaper than those with no view of the inaction. The only other surprise is that they haven't plans to build on the adjacent vacant site that doubles as the home team's attacking penalty area. One block is assigned as affordable housing, yes it still exists in London, presumably with sky high rents in London, it works out cheaper for Orient to house their youth players at the ground in club property. But, as you can probably imagine if you've ever been to see City down there, there are no luxury roof top penthouse apartments. Even so, with a total sale price of about £20 million, its nice little earner for Barry Hearn and the boys. I cast my vote, on several occasions, to have one block named "Derrick Downing Court" in honour of our (and their) left winger of the 1970s but my attempts at vote rigging provided unsuccessful. However, I do intend to buy a couple of flats so that I can hang our Yorkcitysouth flag out of the window next time we play them. In fact, I'll hang it out at every Orient home game just to keep our flag flying. Arsenal are doing something similar with Highbury, but offering an incentive of a free season ticket with every flat. No such incentives at Orient, which I suspect is a clever little marketing ploy. |
| November 24 2005. Sorry, not been around much recently, have you noticed how our form slumped at the same time, coincidence or what. Any way, having heard rumours of the signing of Terry Barwick, I was dead impressed when I saw Teletext's football front page headline, "Barwick Eyeing Wembley Euro Final", I know he's only signed initially on loan, but he sounds confident and impreseive if he expects to lead us through the divisions to a European Champions League Final at Wembley, I wonder which of his new teammates will go all the way with him. |
| October 12. I know Billy Mc and Steve Beck are singing the praises of our Intermediates, but even I couldn't believe the crowds on their way to Trafford on Wednesday until someone told that England were playing down the road. Couldn't believe my eyes, England at Old Trafford again, I thought The FA were taking the games around the country, but they must be working from a Manchester A-Z. |
| October 1. Couldn't believe me eyes when I woke up and checked the club's little fixture list card this morning. There, handwritten it said, "October 1 Exeter (h)", who forgot to type it in? |
| September 12. Rush home from work to see climax of The Ashes. 2 Aussie batsman working off followed by a sombre looking England team to muted applause. We've lost again, I think to myself. Hours later I learn the truth, oh well, at least the cricket administrators can make as big a cock up as football's administrators. |
| September 10. Just back from another win at Forest Green, dizzy with success, but I'm worried. Billy and the boys (most if not all) are on one year contracts, they could walk at the end of the season, a bit like Aldershot last season, all their best players left and look at them now, struggling. Come on board, start getting Billy and at least some of the boys contracted beyond this season. |
| August 31. They say Newcastle fans are football crazy. 15,000 turned up to watch the ink dry on Michael 0-Win's new contract. Plain crazy if you ask me. O-Win leaves Liverpool for "success" at Real Madrid and jumps ship to Newcastle. No chance of any trophies until next July, Michael. |
| August 10. Been scratchng me 'ead all day. Bootham Crescent is in central York, land locked and ripe for housing development. The board and council then push 2 other city centre sites as the preferred choice for our new stadium. Why? Surely they'll have all the disadvantages of Bootham Crescent and can you name any other club who have moved from one city centre location to another? |
| August 8. Unsure why Chris Brass isn't in Billy's plans. He's got to pay his wages whether or not he plays, so he might as well play and be in the shop window. We could do with an extra player, an experienced one at that. |
| July 8. Just finished my stint helping Billy tidy up the ground. I was tidying up his office, spent most of my time emptying Chris and Viv's old desks. Read more. |
| July 5. With Stevie Gerrard constantly changing his mind I think I'd prefer Greg Heald in our side. Do you fancy Stevie who doesn't know whether to stay or go, will probably get confused as to whether to pass to red or blue and will then get dispossessed whilst trying to decide whether to cross or shoot. Meanwhile, no nonesense Greg decides he doesn't fancy it and off he goes. Top man. |
| July 1. Training has started and we don't seem to have the 20 plus trialists of recent years training with us. It looks like Billy McEwan knows what he wants as isn't getting as many bad playere through the door to see who is the least worse of the worst. |
| June 1. What a laugh at the "Colegate Trial". The Premier League set up (that took over 3 months) an inquiry and then the 2 main instigators (agents Barnett and Zahavi) are outside their jurisdiction. Its a case of having to call upon big brothers, The FA and FIFA, if they want to investigate them. Apparently the agents can operate in The Premier League but can't be controlled by them. |
| May 31. I see Rio Ferdinand is claimimg it might take him 18 months or 2 years before he makes up his mind on his new contract. I don't remember him taking so long when he had the chance to jump ship at West Ham or Leeds. Or is it a case that it will take hin 2 years to read his new contract. |
| May 15. Am I going soft or what? I'm starting to feel sorry for Fergie. Glazier tells him he's only got £20m to spend. He'd be better off at Wigan who offered their manager £25m to spend. For Fergie, is it a case of one yank and he's off. |
| May 13. Pouring over the Manchester Scumited take over got me thinking. McManus / Magnier are reputed to have made anything between £70m and £100m, that's probably more than City have turned over in our entire history. Probably the whole of Division 2 could live very nicely on the interest generated by that. I laughed out loud on the tube to work when I read the Independent Manchester United Supporter Association's spokesperson say, "This has come out of the blue, if we'd seen it coming we might have been able to do something different". How much notice do they need? Its been coming since they went to the Stock Market in 1991, the days of Robert Maxwell, recent events raised the stakes and the Takeover Panel's ultimatum of May 17 was less than a week away. If City's supporters were as well organised (and motivated), than we'd have no club by now and Bootham Crescent would to be York's latest Buy To Let investment. |
| May 8. Popped down to the New Den. Drinking before the game, at half time and at the end. Why can't we do that at Bootham Crescent? We could make a bar under the Pop Stand with access via the long lost tunnel. |
| May 7. Awaken at 7:30 (sic) by the thud of the latest When Saturday Comes on the doormat. Open it to find a pic of Norman Wilkinson and Billy Hughes, a strike partnership to strike fear (in more senses than one) into every opposing defence, No wonder we were so good in the 50s. |
| May 5. My old buddy, Josh is over from Kiwi land. He's going back tomorrow but he found time in his busy schedule to meet me for a drink. Its his first time in England and being a far away gooner, he'd tried to get tickets for a game before he arrived, their ticket office said they were sold out, but the nice lady he spoke to told him to go to Highbury when he arrived and she'd see what see could do. I said I'd take him to Canvey Island to see some real footy but he said no. I didn't see any footy that night as we lost 4-0. Anyway, Josh told me he went to Highbury on the day he arrived. The lady managed to find tickets for the cup semi and also the Spurs game. He was made up, especially as his hero, Kenny Sansom, was in the office. They got chatting and Kenny gave him personal guided tour of the stadium. "What you doing tonight?" asked Kenny, "Nothing", replied Josh, Kenny offered to take him to Stevenage to see the Arsenal Ladies. After the game, Josh chatted with one of the Arsenal players, a fellow Kiwi. "I know Charlie George, he'll be at Highbury next week, meet me there and I'll introduce you". A week later, Charlie gives Josh the same guided tour that Sansom had done. It gets better. David Dein was at the ground. He chats to Josh and invites him to go with the directors to see Arsenal at Chelsea. Somewhere in the story, Josh gets a phone call, "Josh, I'm very sorry, I couldn't meet you whilst you were in London", they chat for 20 minutes about Arsenal, goalkeeping and life in general, The caller? Bob Wilson, a boyhood hero for Josh, a young keeper in New Zealand. By the time I meet up with Josh, he's a week late going home. "What's your wife going to say when you get back?" I ask, "I can handle that", replies Josh, "but I'm not sure how I'm going to explain this", he says opening his shirt to reveal a new Gunners tattoo across his heart. Top story, true story, I thought it was only the little clubs who did this sort of thing. |
| May 3. Good to see Billy has pre season training starting on May 11. Only trouble is we don't have many players. Just hope he doesn't wait to July and August to make his signings like we've done in recent years when we've been left with the best (or should it be the least worst) of the rest. |
| April 30. As the end of the season approaches, I give you The Fourth Law Of Football Supporting, "The bigger the club you support, you more stupid you look when crying your eyes out after a defeat denies you the success you wanted". |
| April 27. Just read about 2 attempts to cut Chris Brass. Not so much of the friendly club evident here when we try to settle with him twice within weeks of his serious knee injury. |
| April 13. Now we can look forward to our 3rd annual player cull. One year contracts are a 4 edged saw. One, we only have rubbish for a year. Two, any one whose half decent can leave after a year. Three, no one whose half decent wants just a year. Four, it takes a lot of time for the boss to work out his best 11 when he’s got so many new players to pick from. As for the juniors, are the current 17 year old trainees any better than this season’s 18 year old first season pros? Whatever, I know Billy is up to the job. |
| April 12. Someone wrote on Arthur tonight that Chris Brass "should continue following his re-abilitation". I can think of far more worthy candidates for re-abilitation, especially after tonight. |
| April 12. What a night. Was it the first time I’ve celebrated after a City 6-0 defeat. At least we‘ve avoided relegation. |
| April 9. Day Jar Who or wot. Lose at Hereford and with other results going our way, everyone says we're safe. Just like 1999 I suppose when we entered the last week of the season needing to lose both our games whilst Lincoln and Wycombe both won their 3 remaining games. No prizes for guessing what happened next. Tempting fate or what. |
| March 25. What started as an Easter Extra finished with a blank. Early Good Friday train from Kings Cross up to York to see us play Aldershot. All quiet as I approached the ground, nothing unusual there. Gates locked at 10 to 3. No one told me they'd changed the date. Anyway, more to come. Back to London and off to Wembley the next day for the Northern Ireland game. Ground a building site. Who said they could rebuild Wembley and have you noticed how all the big England games are now played at Old Trafford. I thought they were being spread around the country when really its big games at Old Trafford and the crumbs for the rest. With German and Scottish fans trying to get Hamman and Baxter immortalised in the naming of the new Wembley stadium, how about starting "The John Woodward Walkway" campaign? |
| March 25. As for my dad. With no Good Friday football, he was tending the roses in his front garden when he saw a familiar car go by. It was Billy McEwan being chauffeured by Steve Beck. "It’s a holiday, no game, no training, what they’re doing going off together", he wondered as he jumped into his car to follow them. He ended up at Northwich for the afternoon, thinking he’ll be back in York by 6 he phoned me mum to tell her to get tea ready. Big mistake, after the game, Steve drives Billy drive to Burton to watch the evening conference game. What dedication, Bank Holiday, and Billy takes in 2 games. Top Man, or should that be Top Men, for Billy and Steve. |
| March 19. Billy's first signing. A new tractor, he'll probably be our fastest defender. A drainage machine as part of the deal, another bore. |
| March 16. Gary Pearson out. Calculator out. Reckon City have saved a grand by getting rid of injured Pearson. Possibly a win - win situation (rare for City) with a tax free redundancy pay off for Pearson and City save on national insurance and income tax. What price Pearson at Hartlepool next season? Who's next for a package, there were plenty on offer last season! And, if there's none, it must be because we can't afford the lump sums up front (the cash, not our strike force). |
| March 14. Saw the Welsh squad announced. Telephoned the Welsh FA and got rheir auto,ated recording machine, "Dial One For Tickets, Dial 2 for Membership Details and Dial 3 if you want a game". With Robbie Savage announcing his retirement today, I suppose they must be short. |
| March 9. Tried explaining the offside law to my little cousin. The linesman must have about 5 pairs of eyes, the legs of Linford Christie and the combined brain of Einstein, Newton and Pythagaros. I've got a worse headache that I've had since I went to see Scarborough play last week. My cousin? he's waiting for cbeebies to explain offside. |
| March 5. Sick before the game with all those Yorkies, more chocs inside the ground, couldn't face the half time pie but was sick again when I saw there was no pie queue, guess everyone has gone for the free choccy and sick again at the final whistle with another home defeat. |
| February 10. Dash down to the ground straight after work to be one of the first to get Billy’s autograph. Long wait before he emerges with Steve Beck, "Billy, can I have your autograph", I shout, Billy obliges, whilst doing so, Steve’s phone rings, he answers it and asks Billy what he’s doing next Wednesday, and replies to his caller, "OK, we can do next Wednesday". It was the York Minstermen, quick off the mark to get Billy along to his next meeting. |