Y Front Fanzine
Issue #66
66-01 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
66-02 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
66-03 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
66-04 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
66-05 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
66-06 x
x
x
x
x
Issue #65
Keep It In The Family Adam Hinshelwood’s appointment places his family at the head of City footballing families. Grandfather Wally was a pro whilst Dad Paul was an ex-England under-21 and Crystal Palace player. One of his teammates was his brother Martin, Adam’s uncle. Adam’s son Jack plays for Brighton & Hove Albion, making his Premier League debut in May 2023, the fourth generation of his family to play League football. Adam’s cousin, Harry Howell (son of Adam’ sister Jackie) became the latest footballing member of the family when he made his Brighton debut in May 2025.
3 generations of a number of other footballing families have City links, including:
Phil Burrows. Phil’s father and grandfather both played for Stockport. His Dad, Arthur Jnr once played against Ernest Swallow (no need to name his son here) in a famous cup tie, the “timeless” Division 3 North Cup game in March 1946 between Stockport and Doncaster. Meant to be played to a conclusion, the game was finally abandoned after 203 minutes with scores level due to bad light, the longest ever senior English game. Phil’s Granddad, Arthur Snr, was named as twelfth man (non playing substitute) in the 1921 Division 2 game between Stockport and Leicester which attracted a record low of just 13 spectators.
Local 1960s striker Jeff Barmby failed to make the grade with City but had a long and successful non league career at Scarborough. Son Nick played for Spurs, Everton and England whilst his son Jack came through the Manchester United junior system before moving to America (after scoring for Hartlepool against City).
Charlie Cooper had a month on loan with City in October 2016. Dad Mark was a decent lower league player and manager and grandfather Terry Cooper enjoyed a long career at left back for Leeds and England.
September 2020 signing Michael Woods was the 3rd generation of his family to play for City following in the boots of Neil (uncle) and Alan (grandfather). Neil's son, Sam was an apprentice at Grimsby.
Shaun Rooney. His great uncle Benny Rooney was a footballer, mainly with St Johnstone. His great grandfather Bob also played but was better known as a physiotherapist at Celtic.
Tom Fenoughty Snr signed for City in early 1927 and had 6 very successful seasons (97 goals in 229 appearances) as City became a Football League side. He joined Rotherham in 1934. His son, Tom Jnr played for Sheffield United and Chesterfield. 2 other sons, Mick and Nick also played for Chesterfield. In 1975, all 3 featured in Matlock's 4-0 FA Trophy win over Scarborough at Wembley, the only instance of 3 brothers playing together at Wembley. A grandson, Mark Fenoughty, had a spell as COO at Sheffield United. Tom Snr was great grandfather of siblings Michael and Rory Boulding were also footballers, both playing for various Football League clubs, including Mansfield and Bradford City between 2006 and March 2010. Michael was previously a leading ranked GB junior tennis player whilst one of his sisters, Sally also spent some time on the world tennis circuit and another sister, Helen, is a talented musician.
See for more City family connections.
The Green “Un”
July 2026 mark’s 40 years since York’s “Green Un” last saw the light of day.
The Yorkshire Evening Press launched its Saturday evening sports edition in 1905. Originally printed on standard white newspaper, it is best remembered by many as "The Green Press" or “The Green ‘Un” after it switched to green paper. From the 1970s, for economic reasons, it was printed on pink paper.
It was sold as a special edition, available every Saturday evening, from around 6pm in the city centre and local villages, outlying places might have to wait until Sunday morning to receive their copies. My memory suggests it was priced at a similar level to the daily news edition which was around 24 – 32 pages.
In its final years, its 8 broadsheet pages were packed with results and match reports from around the county (including City, York RL (before Sunday rugby), York RU, Leeds, Scarborough and Goole across the front and back covers) plus many regular articles covering a whole multitude of sports on its inside pages.
It contained all the days’ football, rugby, cricket and horse racing results plus columns covering many local clubs (both senior amateur and boys leagues) with extensive columns covering many more sports, including darts, angling (great for learning about Yorkshire’s rivers and freshwater fish), squash, badminton, tennis, table tennis, horse racing, golf and many more sports.
Pages 1 and 8 were dedicated to the day’s results and reports whilst the other 6 pages were reviews of the last week.
My earliest recollections are the match reports. Very much kick by kick accounts with the last 15 minutes’ action largely condensed into “Aimson scored City’s 3rd on 78 minutes” and “Jackson was booked in the last minute” as the typesetters’ deadline rapidly approached. Any considered match analysis, and there wasn’t much, had to wait until Monday’s paper.
Inside, across the top of page 2 was Malcolm Huntington’s City diary, very much towing City’s party line, the York RL diary held the same position on page 4 and page 7 usually had a large horseracing column. Alongside it was “Mark The Ball”, my family were close every week but never even won £5.
Malcolm Huntington’s diary would often contain reader’s letters. That’s where I first saw my name in print. One of mine was moulded into his column, ”Mr Forth says blatant mistakes by the linesman”, he could use my letter to give a point of view when he didn’t want to use his own name so as not to cause any offence by him to City or the footballing authorities. He may have said “possibly a little dubious” or similar in his Monday match report. Often he styled readers’ letters in such a way into his diary column.
Dotted around the rest of the paper were columns covering the local leagues (there would have been around 120 senior local amateur football sides in York in the early 1970s). League secretaries and team managers would file reports, so there were columns of match reports from the previous weekend’s games, each just a couple of sentences long. With leading non league teams like Scarborough and Goole well covered, it became a ritual of mine to spot the names of ex City players dotted around throughout the reports.
Plenty of other sports were covered, tennis (Malcolm Huntington was a keen player and his wife a very talented player), table tennis and angling were always well represented.
The paper was very “newsy”, lots of factual content much less analysis. Towards its final days, there appeared a syndicated column from national figures, so interesting I don’t remember who.
It was a must read for the sports aficionado, although without the football, it could sometimes be a hard read during the summer months.
Across the country, many towns and cities with a local paper also published a separate Saturday evening sports’ paper. Just about every football hotbed had one. I’d reckon there must have been over 100 different sports editions across the UK in the first half of the twentieth century. London was about the only big city without one. All were of a similar format.
In my younger days (and it was possibly more often after a day’s trainspotting rather than football), the last thing I’d do before heading home on a Saturday evening was to buy the local sports press (Derby, Bristol and Newcastle included). Alighting at York station, the first thing I’d do was to buy the York sports paper, by this time, the seller had gone home (or more likely, down the pub) so I’d chuck the coins into his honesty box (really).
Sadly, the last edition of York’s sports press was on July 26, 1986.
Given the massive fall off in sales during the summer months, any cricket game was still ongoing (county games were just resuming after the tea break on the first day whilst a York CC game at Clifton Park was barely past the half way mark) as the printers went to work, it seemed surprising that after City had enjoyed a relatively successful 1985/6 season that the paper limped on throughout the summer months until the last edition hit the streets.
The decline of our Green Un was to mirror what was happening across the country.
York had its nascent BBC North Yorkshire and its own Saturday afternoon sports programme. There was less need for the printed results.
Over the coming years, as mobiles phones and the internet grew in popularity and football started to move away from the traditional Saturday 3pm kick off, demand for a printed sports edition lessened.
Some of the last to survive were the Sheffield Star’s Green 'Un and Sunderland Echo Pink which both closed in 2013. That left just 2 titles. In its final years, the Sunderland paper was printed just outside Sheffield and went on sale on a Sunday morning, in its last days, its circulation was under 4,000 copies a week.
This mirrored the York Press which left Coney Street, moved to Walmgate in 1989 and was later printed in Bradford. In York, the weekday paper had consisted of at least 3 separate editions (early, late, county) which became one bland edition when printing moved to Bradford. Many would suggest the decline of the Yorkshire Evening Press started when its printers moved to Bradford and was accelerated in 2004 when it became a tabloid. Others would suggest these were the final nails in its coffin.
The demise of the Sunderland Pink in 2013 left just two Saturday sports papers in existence. Portsmouth's Sports Mail, which had only just been resurrected for the 2013/4 season after a local campaign (having originally run from 1903 until 2012) and the Southampton based Southern Daily Echo's Sports Pink.
On December 9, 2017, the Southampton paper had the distinction of being the last Saturday sports press to fold.
Remaining was Portsmouth’s Sports Mail, it had moved its publication to a Sunday in October 2016 and finally ceased existence on July 10, 2022.
I’m afraid, missed by many it had long served its purpose.
Rochdale: A Game To Forget?
September 28, 1968 saw City draw 0-0 at home to Rochdale.
Looking back at our line up, City included Ted MacDougall, Phil Boyer and Tommy Ross up top with Phil Burrows, Barry Jackson and Graham Carr in defence alongside Gerry Baker, a few weeks before injury ended his career.
Alongside them was Chris Dale, a callow youth from Dringhouses making his debut in the number 11 shirt, in the days when that meant outside left.
The season ended with City successfully seeking re-election and Rochdale gaining promotion for the first time ever, they had to wait over 40 years for another promotion. I’m still puzzled as to why such a line up was in the bottom 4.
A crowd of 3,509 saw a dull 0-0 draw. I was one of them, indeed it was my first ever City game.
My Dad was a cynic and hadn’t been to Bootham Crescent for many years, the closest he got to City was working alongside Alf Patrick. It fell to my Uncle to take me to the game with my cousin. I can’t recall how we got there, did my Uncle drive us, or did another Auntie take us?
At the turnstiles, my uncle told me to put the half crown (2 and 6, or 12.5p depending on your age) that my Dad had given me for admission back in my pocket.
I stood in the middle of the Pop Stand with my uncle whilst my cousin went off with his friends.
I’m afraid there were no “Fever Pitch” moments for me of seeing an immaculate green pitch for the first time, we lived overlooking a well maintained sports field and I’ve no recollection of the smell of hot dogs and onions, indeed, I wouldn’t eat onions at the time.
The game largely passed me by.
My main memory is Chris Dale making his City debut, sharing a first name with him, I dreamt of taking his place in City’s side in the years to come.
Whatever, I was hooked, after a few more games attending with my uncle, I would venture down to Bootham Crescent with friends, the earlier days we went in the Pop Stand.
The abiding memory is of us playing tag, with old timers telling us to stand still and watch the game. I’m not sure if that is due to the standard of football or our attention span as the games largely passed us by (remember it was the era of 3 successive re-election campaigns).
By the time City were promoted in 1971 we were firmly ensconced at the Grovsenor Road end of the ground after collecting player autographs and a visit to the Programme Shop before kick off. It was that promotion season that cemented my love of City.
My uncle was a life long City supporter, my cousin lost the faith during the Craig years whilst the friends who I stood with came and went as active City supporters. Some I still see at games today, more still have a more passive interest in City from afar.
Fast forward nearly 60years, both City and Rochdale are in the ascendency. Far more exciting than a drab 0-0 draw, but over 800 times more expensive to get in.
I often wonder what might have happened if my love of City hadn’t flourished.
2025/6 - Loan Watch
For as long as I can remember, City have used loan players, sometimes, usually in seasons of struggle, nearly half our side was made up of loanees, occasionally to the extent we had more loanees than we could name in a match day squad.
How different this season has been. We ended with just one incoming loanee and about 22 outgoing loanees. By my count, 13 professionals and 9 scholars spent time away from City on loan.
So was our loan policy successful or not?
Zak Johnson was the only incoming loanee, he should be judged a success as he slotted seamlessly into the middle of our back 3 and kept Callum Howe out of the side.
Overall, I might say our incoming loans policy was unsuccessful. From November, for a City side fielding 2 strikers, we had just 2 senior pro strikers (albeit with options to push others forward into a striking role if necessary). Stuart Maynard admitted before the Aldershot game in March that Josh Stones badly needed a rest, some suggested tiredness was a contributory factor in the previous game at Boreham Wood. When on the pitch, both Stones and Pearce work tirelessly, so maybe it is no wonder both have off games at times.
On the basis that we didn’t sign a striker on loan, I’d say our incoming policy was an overall failure. For the last 6 league games (and potential play off games), we rely on our 2 main strikers staying fit, fresh, in form and free from suspension. One harsh tackle could be an injury ending season or a 3 game suspension. Imagine, the final weeks of the season and City are chasing a game, we have no proper striker to throw on as we go for a result.
At Gateshead, would a fresh pair of legs up top have made a difference at 0-1? We will never know as our bench had 4 defenders with Oli Banks as the most forward thinking player to call upon.
The beauty of loanees is that they don’t need to be a perfect fit. They are only here for a short time (and clubs usually have the option to send them back or side line them) if it is not working out.
By spring, most clubs will have decided the fate of their out of contract players. In recent seasons, the likes of Lewis Richardson, Junior Luamba, Alex Hunt, Sam Fishburn, Charlie Allen, Danny Amos and Sam Sanders are amongst the young players to join City on loan towards the end of this season. You could say all the deals were sort of “try before you sign” deals. The player had a few months to show what he could do and City had a first hand chance to assess the players before they took the plunge (or pulled the plug).
This year, for whatever reason, City failed to entice anyone to come in on loan as the season reached its climax.
There was talk of players not wanting to drop down to non league football. Maybe true, but the carrot should have been a chance of “men’s football” and, at least, a place on the bench in every game in a winning side going for a title.
If Premier League players didn’t want to drop down, there are other divisions and players to consider. Just like Oldham when they took Josh Stones on loan in late 2024.
Not every incoming loan is successful, in City’s case, generally more are unsuccessful than successful, but each is an opportunity to have a look.
We saw with Shaq Forde and Ollie Tanner the good and bad of signing young loanees. In the case of Tanner, he quickly seemed to be distanced from the squad, Forde flourished.
Given the number of Championship and League One clubs in the Yorkshire area, perhaps City should re-establish links with those clubs and establish a pipeline of potential loan targets.
Out of favour Jeff King found his best form at Boreham Wood and came straight back into City’s side at the start of the new year. With Joe Felix and Joe Grey both struggling to impress at right wing back, he readily slotted into a vacant position. It is possibly fair to say that his best position is right wing back (rather than right back) and he left his best form at Boreham Wood. Although largely dependable, he was far from the first name of City’s team sheet, but he came back from Boreham Wood as first team ready. He was about the only successful, outgoing loan.
That can’t be said for Tyrese Sinclair, Ashley Nathaniel–George or Billy Chadwick. All returned to City and found themselves back on the periphery of the first team squad. Chadwick left City in January and the other 2 appear to have little future with City.
Cam John has done well on a season long loan at Hartlepool, but of the other professionals, possibly at least 7 (Gravata, Cordner, O’Connor, Aguiar, McLaughlin, Watson and Fadera) were playing out the last months of their City contracts away on loan.
The best that can be said is that City were getting a contribution to their wages but I doubt if we’ll see any back in the National League very soon. Harsh maybe, but it demonstrates that more players will fail than will succeed.
The future of Ash Palmer is unclear, about the only certainty is that he has fallen down the pecking order of City’s centre halves due to a mix of injury and progress of others. Going forward, experience, not pace, will be his main asset.
So, it is a small plaudit for the City staff for getting so many out on loan and the contributions to the players’ wages that they negotiated.
That brings us into City scholars and another small plaudit. This season, City seemed far more active in finding loans for the scholars, hopefully that signals a change in direction, getting the youngsters used to “men’s football” at an earlier age, it can only help their development.
About 9 Year 2 scholars have enjoyed time away on loan, usually dual registration deals which meant they kept links with City, education included, and could still play for City’s Academy side. Ben Farrar had a spell at Whitby Town (tier 7) between spell 2 spells at Bridlington Town (tier 8).
For all, it was a first taste of “men’s football” (North Riding Senior Cup aside). Beyond Farrar, most were at clubs in tiers 8 and 9 and one in tier 10.
Jake Roberts had a long spell at the Wakefield based (I had to look it up) side Norbury Town (tier 9), playing for both their first and under 23 sides. As an aside, I often wonder how so many “community” based clubs field an under23 side when City do not.
Unfortunately, most of the scholars’ loans were a long way away from National League level, but at 17 and 18, it is to be hoped that the players have more time on their side and that it is the first small step towards bridging the gap between academy and first team that has existed for 30 years at City.
As has been noted elsewhere, under 21 players don’t count towards a Football League club’s squad numbers, so the more who progress through the pyramid the better for City.
The scholar loans may be considered to be another small success for the club’s loan policy, but the biggest measure of success is the impact on our first team.
Statue For Howe?
Recently, Newcastle fans have been calling for a statue for Eddie Howe.
I wonder if they’ll still be in the same mind in 6 months’ time if Newcastle are struggling in The Premier League or outside the Champions League?
For City, who deserves a statue?
Possibly someone from the 1955 FA Cup side, but who? Maybe the whole of the front 5. Picking one, it might be Norman Wilkinson, the club’s all time top scorer or Arthur Bottom. Bottom scored well over more than half the goals (105) that Wilkinson scored (143) but in only one third of the time.
Next candidate would have to be Barry Swallow, captain of 2 City promotion sides (no one else has done that) and our only captain to lead us into tier 2. Roll forward 30 years and there would be a lynch mob pulling down the statue.
Would Keith Walwyn deserve a statue? In the scheme of things, a great striker, but no stand out moment or achievement.
From the 2012 side, I’d nominate Gary Mills. But, he sullied his reputation with his second spell with City.
Whatever, if any of the above had had a statue erected, even Gary Mills, today, there would be a good proportion of our supporter base asking “Gary who?”
Rather than a statue, maybe a mural is the way forward. In City’s case, a better option than the bland mural we currently have at the ground today.
Just think, one day, your face is up for all to see, the next day, or next decade, your image is replaced by today’s hero.
Mural for Callum Howe?
The longevity and leadership over our 3 seasons back in the National League, he is surely the stand out candidate. Just a shame a couple of concussions has seen him lose his place in the side, no one could have imagined that back in September.
Incidentally, 2 former City managersmanagers have statues erected in their honour at grounds to which they are more closely associated. Joe Shaw (Sheffield United) and Sam Bartram (Charlton) both have statues in their honour at the grounds of the clubs where they set appearance records.
Issue #64
Club Call In the days before the internet, when local radio was still in its infancy, one of the most popular sources of club information was Club Call.
It was a simple format, let people pay for news and gossip. Not just pay, but pay premium prices. Across the nation, companies barred all premium rate numbers and woe betide you if Mum and Dad’s phone bill suddenly spiked.
Initially launched by British Telecom in 1986, its tentacles soon spread from England’s top flight clubs to cover all the “92”, later spreading its reach across the continent.
In 1991, it was spun off as a privately owned company, sold, firstly to Ladbrokes and later it passed through several hands, each of whom still thought they could make it work as the as internet strengthened its grip.
Profits were split between the service provider and the club and clubs saw a potentially new and significant income stream.
At the time, BT ran a host of similar premium price phone lines, catering for all kinds of taste, stock market (current share prices), pop charts (dial a song), horse race tipping and many others, some of which can’t be mentioned in a family publication like Y Front.
Their common themes included a premium rate priced service and often a lengthy pre-amble before the ”real” news was revealed. For football, club tittle tattle, transfer rumours, interviews, match commentary and such like. Quite why anyone would pay premium prices for something that could be gleamed for a few pence in that day’s (or even the previous day’s) Yorkshire Evening Press I’ll never know.
Want to know which player is injured, unhappy or has roast chicken as his favourite meal, ClubCall was the place for you. Each announcement on the call was preceded by a long pre-amble, just to ensure the content provider and club got its money’s worth from the fans.
It was in era where managers rarely did press conferences and fans had to resort to resort to the matchday programme’s player profile page to learn about the players.
A host of young acne faced hopefuls cut their teeth on Club Call. So did Guy Mowbray.
Very quickly the big boys stepped in, they provided the infrastructure and content. The service became even more bland but flourished until the internet cast its death knell.
One friend rang the service late one night, he expected a 5 minute call costing about £3, he failed to put the phone receiver down properly and found he was still connected at breakfast time on the following morning. He had trouble explaining a £300 phone call to his parents.
Personally, I saw no value in it whilst today, the internet and message boards serve exactly the same function in a much more interactive manner.
Testimonials – The Golden Years The second half of 1990s was a golden era for testimonials at Bootham Crescent. By this time, the testimonial game had become the high point of the testimonial season.
First off was Tony Canham when in July 1995, over 2,400 fans (including a 4 figure away following saw City lose 3-1 to Sunderland with Keith Walwyn, John MacPhail, Alan Hay, Dave McAughtrie and Alan Little donning City shirts.
2 years later, 7,123 fans saw City draw 4-4 with Middlesbrough in Steve Tutill’s testimonial game. The game netted £31,000 in gate receipts, an all time record for a City testimonial match. His popularity was shown when over 450 people, including many of City’s 1954/5 FA Cup side attended a dinner on the Knavesmire.
A year later, Middlesbrough against provided the opposition, this time a testimonial game for Alan Little, the only ever City manager to be granted a testimonial by the club. 6,215 saw Paul Gascoigne play for Middlesbrough with Keith Walwyn making a brief appearance for City.
The following July saw City beat Leeds 2-1 in front of a 2,875 in Andy McMillan’s testimonial. A curtain raiser featured a City 70s side (including Graeme Crawford, Barry Swallow, Chris Topping, Topping, Seal, Chris Jones, Lyons and Butler) playing in the 1974/5 Y front shirts play Leeds United Old Boys (including Lorimer and John Charles)
Finally, a year later (August 2020), City lost 2-1 to Middlesbrough in Wayne Hall’s testimonial in front of a 3,185 crowd.
Subsequent, given City’s struggles, long serving players and testimonials have become fewer.
David McGurk enjoyed a testimonial in August 2012, less than 3 months after City’s Wembley double when 1,865 saw Middlesbrough beat City 2-1 with a late goal. Recovering from a long term injury, McGurk was given a guard of honour when leading City onto the pitch, he played the first 11 minutes before being substituted (he went into the game with a calf injury).
October 2019 saw City’s Wembley Twice 2012 side take on Daniel Parslows's City All Stars, featuring many of Parslow’s teammates in the last testimonial game staged at Bootham Crescent. The Parslow side won 7-4, in part thanks to a Richard Pacquette hat-trick. Gary Mills came on at right-back and striker Jon Parkin filled in in goal.
1,022 watched the game, and in modern day convention, Parslow split the proceeds between his testimonial fund and Headway, the brain injury charity. Forced into an early retirement after suffering a concussion earlier in the year, Parslow defied medical advice to put on his boots for one last time. He entered the pitch through a guard of honour, started the game and played the first 6 minutes.
In total, 39 ex teammates were present, including Jason Walker on crutches and Andre Boucaud who travelled from London despite being injured and unable to play.
Paddy McLaughlin’s testimonial season started in August with a lively event in the Haxby Sports Bar which was well attended by fans and players alike. It was good to see so many players supporting the event, despite only arriving back from Truro in the early hours of the day. It was a night not to be missed. Watch out for events throughout the season.
Account Watch – The Early Guys For the vast majority of football clubs, City included, the financial year runs to June 30 and accounts need to be published by March 31 in the following year.
Most clubs just meet the deadline, but the amongst the first, Rochdale and Plymouth, included, published before Christmas.
For City, expect a summarised set of figures in late March, long gone are the detailed and itemised accounts published in early autumn with an AGM for shareholder a few weeks later.
It is always interesting to take a look at other clubs’ accounts, especially those of clubs at City’s level and at clubs that City might aspire to be.
Rochdale showed a £1.8m loss and that was largely funded by the owning Ogden family. Although a recently former Football League club, with cost base and aspirations to match, that lose is possibly around twice as much as the average in the National League. Maybe the size of the loss is reflective of a recently former Football League club and they will cover the first set of pitch remediation.
Their accounts were possibly a little more detailed than City’s, some figures and commentary suggested a strong focus on infrastructure over squad building, but beyond the headline loss, my biggest takeaway was their 110 employees, far in excess of City’s 69. City are massive?
Plymouth’s accounts quickly followed. Their 2024/5 season started with Wayne Rooney in charge and ended with relegation to League 1. In my mind every club has a natural home, for Plymouth maybe too big for League 1 but not quite big enough for the Championship, although their location usually guarantees strong home support, indeed their 2024/5 average was 16,537, the highest since the late 1950s. If City’s attendances are massive, what does that make Plymouth?
Rochdale’s losses were largely covered by converting debt into shares and a similar theme was identified in the Plymouth accounts where a top line profit of £480,000 was achieved by £8m in player sales and post year end, their financial position has been strengthened (my first word, but maybe supported is a better word) by the owner lending of £9.8m.
Both clubs are owned by one family, so issuing shares (and diluting existing shareholder equity) was easily done at Rochdale. That might not be so easy at City where the YCST own 25% of the shares, so the Plymouth model is more closely followed with the owners underwriting losses with loans or in City’s case, donations.
Plymouth noted that it was the first year in several years where on the pitch performance was not significantly better than implied football budget, showing money isn’t always the answer.
For Plymouth, the club's wage bill was a record £18m (up £3m in their second season back in the Championship), that was 73.7% of revenue, which rose to a record £28.8m thanks in large part of a new television deal for the English Football League. Unusually, Plymouth seem more forward thinking than many clubs. Their accounts recognise the risk that most of their income is based on being a Championship club and are looking to mitigate that risk. Consequently are looking to widen their cost base, and presumably supported by the money the owner has lent, they have invested in a 5 a side operation, a pub and land around the stadium on which they plan to build a fan zone. Another medium term focus is building a new home for their academy and ladies team.
For Plymouth, central Football League /TV income was £11.3m, about 40% of total come whilst another 50% came from 4 categories (match ticket sales (£5.9m), hospitality / venue (£4.7m). retail (£2.8m) and sponsorship / advertising (£1.6m)).
Relate that to City, given our crowds, pro rata, we might struggle to make £2m in ticket sales whilst central funding is next to nothing.
Plymouth employees number 586, taken away the 185 match day employees and you are left with 401 employees, those 401 split into 131 football and 270 other employees.
Given Rochdale’s 110 employees, I wonder where City could house such numbers and what roles they would undertake. Plymouth’s 401 employees don’t bear thinking about, beyond the need for a bigger stadium and training ground to house such numbers.
The New One
Just finished reading Andy Leaning’s “Crossing The White Line” book. Ultimately, I found it to be a disappointing read. Effectively, it covered his life to the end of his first season as a professional in 1986. Undoubtedly, his appearance at Anfield was the playing highlight of his first season.
The rest of his career is covered in a couple of pages in an epilogue section, no mention of his “messy” departure from City or his Everton trial. As he says himself, there is plenty of material for a follow up book.
Starting at British Rail as a 16 year old apprentice, he endured the typical male dominated work place culture, many of the tales he tells maybe reminiscent of similar workplaces today. As a newcomer in an established workplace, he had to fit in to survive.
His first season as a professional with City is covered in detail, although there is very little new insight into the season. About the only thing of note, and is his mention (several times) of a toothless Sean Haslegrave being physically sick with pre match nerves before every game. He comes across as the leader in the dressing room. There is barely a mention of John MacPhail or Keith Walwyn.
The supportive roles of Denis Smith and Viv Busby are well conveyed, “the lads have accepted you” and “the 2 centre backs are impressed with your in match comms” both boosted a new professional who was doubting whether he had the skills and temperament to be a professional footballer.
That dressing room seems to have many parallels to today’s City dressing room. It is clear to see the management team’s role in acknowledging the player’s performances whilst today’s player’s leadership group sets the standards in the same way as in 1984.
For Leaning, he joined a winning dressing room, in the summer he arrived there were very few new signings. He was an outsider. Could he “join the group” and make an impression?
He feared the step up from amateur football and questioned his worthiness on a regular basis, was he good enough to join the group and make a difference alongside players he had watched for seasons from the Main Stand and away terraces.
Training and a string of clean sheets for the reserves (6 in his first 7 games) saw him pass the test.
Maybe it is something that every new signing experiences, last summer, we made 8 new signings, nearly all stepping down into the National League, so they had done it before, knowing they had the ability to make a difference, they readily bonded with the rest of the squad.
Come autumn, Nico Lawrence and Craig Hewitt joined. One arrived injured and one stepping up a division.
Despite a goal on debut as a substitute, Hewitt has seen very little game time. Lawrence was soon released. It remains to be seen whether Hewitt makes the grade.
In the spring before he signed professional terms with City, Andy Leaning stepped up into City’s reserve side as an emergency keeper for the last 5 games, playing alongside amateur Tony Canham. Both proved their value, enough to impress and earn professional contracts.
Today, with no reserve side, no one has a chance to impress.
100 Points This season (2025/6) is playing out just like last season (2024/5) when at Christmas, 5 teams were tightly bunched at the top of the table, some suggested all 5 were capable of hitting the 100 points mark. Forest Green Rovers were just ahead of the bunch with Barnet and City lurking at the top. Of the top 5, Gateshead fell away spectacularly in the new year as their lack of squad depth told.
It was Barnet who went on an incredible run with City just about keeping up. As last season progressed, results became more unpredictable as teams in the relegation dog fight found form from nowhere and got unexpected results against higher placed teams, many of whom were coasting with little or nothing to play for. Witness the end of the 2023/4 season as the result Hinsh’s new City team pulled out against all odds.
This season, much the same. Again, 5 teams were closely placed at Christmas. It has been Boreham Wood who have fallen away badly as loss of key men impacted them with Rochdale and City pulling clear.
Whilst City and Rochdale appear on track for 100+ points, none of the others will get anywhere near that magical figure.
As ever, the play offs will be a series of one off games where anything is possible.
The future is unwritten, but like Barnet and Chesterfield before, maybe the Champions will lose some form once the title is decided and the runners up will still have some serious work to do in early May.
Stuart Maynard Reveals Stuart Maynard’s first job when he arrived at City was to clear out Adam Hinshelwood’s desk. As you might imagine, Hinsh had left the desk in near immaculate condition, no rubbish apart from 3 pieces of screwed up paper which were transfer bids he had turned down for 3 separate players.
However, the most revealing item was a letter that had fallen down the back, it was from Manchester United and was dated October 31, 2024. It read…
Dear Mr Hinshelwood,
Before we go to the wider market for our next manager, having carefully considered what you have already achieved, at what some might consider to be a run down and even more shambolic football club than Manchester United, having noted the similarities between United and York City, we would like to consider you for the position of manager of Manchester United.
The post comes with a high salary commensurate with such a prestige club together with the expected benefits. To this package, we have recently added state of the art transport (the full Ineos bike catalogue is available), a Manchester United branded umbrella (no other umbrellas are available) to keep you dry on home match days and a red cap to remind you of York for use at away games. In addition, and subject to Manchester United retaining Premier League status, we can offer an annual all expenses weekend trip to your beloved Brighton.
We note the way you already “get” Manchester United with the way your teams play attacking football with 2 wingers, although we can possibly provide you with an upgrade on Tyrese Sinclair and Ashley Nathaniel-George and at your wish (or without it), we would throw whatever it takes to bring Ollie Pearce and Josh Stones to Old Trafford.
For your family, like York City, we can offer a vibrant Junior Reds set up although we note that the range of activities available may not stretch your elder son enough and your younger son might find more opportunities down the road.
As an ambitious club with deep Ineos lined pockets, I’m sure you’ll never be wanting for money to fund your plans.
We feel that you are ideally suited to this role, noting your:
Whilst our new minority director might think he is hands on and in control, the Glazer family retain a majority shareholding and being based overseas we fully expect our manager to be the face of the club and to take charge of all aspects of the club with minimal board interference. However, we always reserve the right to change our minds and direction of travel based on the valued input from a number of our high profile former players and TV pundits.
Yours in soccer,
The Glazer Family.
PS: If you feel that you have unfinished business in York and do not feel that now is right time to make the move, please do not despair, in all likelihood, we’ll make the same request to you about once every year.
Issue #63
Sportspages Tucked away on London’s Charing Cross Road, almost opposite the site of the last central site of the Marquee, was a much loved and much missed bookshop, Sportspages.
Opened in 1985, John Gaustad, the shop’s founder, was said to have launched it after he was unable to find any books about his beloved All Blacks in London. At the time, many high street book shops stocked barely half a dozen, mostly bland, titles under “Sport”. It soon became the go to place for any book on any sport, appropriate really as it was barely 100 yards from Foyles bookshop. It was a mecca for sports’ fans from all over the world, Sports Illustrated magazine once rated the shop as “the world’s coolest”.
It was the first shop in Britain devoted solely to selling sports books. When I say any sport, I mean any sport (including many that some people wouldn’t consider sport).
Opening on September 6, 1985, the first book it sold was a book on yoga and on that first day, a total of just 3 books were sold.
Covering around 80 square yards, the premises were roughly arranged in 3 rooms. Entering directly straight into the “front room”, you were greeted by the sales points and the heavily promoted product of the day in an area which often had famous sports people in shop signing their new book.
Leaving the front room, you could turn left into the football section or right into the other sports section. From the outside, the shop was largely glass fronted, the busy hub bub of the “front room” and football section drawing passers by in.
The newcomer was greeted by knowledgeable staff and more sports books than they could ever image, this in the days before football culture when the Conservative government sought to ostracise the football supporter.
You’ve got to remember that 1985 was well pre internet, so ideas were pre-conceived and football writing was old school.
The shop was to became hugely important in the rise of sports literature, offering fans and journalists a dedicated place to go to find writing about football and other sports.
Who knows just how much Sportspages inspired books like “All Played Out” in which Pete Davies captured the essence of the 1990 World Cup, Nick Hornby’s “Fever Pitch” in which he captured his football awakening and many books from many other new authors.
Some of those early self published fanzines spawned good number of authors who later added colour and quality to mainstream sporting journalism.
The year after Sportspages opened, When Saturday Comes first saw the light of day. It encouraged the club based fanzines across the country. Sportspages was selling fanzines and by the end of the 1980s, there must have been over 200 different titles, many sold in shop, most British football clubs were catered for, together with a sprinkling of fanzines related to other sports and some representing European clubs. Despite most people having little interest in the clubs they covered, each provided a real insight into the clubs and what the fans were thinking, no more having to rely on established media outlets for polarised opinion.
Whist the books were displayed on bookshelves, the fanzines were piled on the floor in front of the bookshelves, in places 3 deep, almost creating barrier between browser and bookshelf.
Living in York at the time, Sportspages was always a stop off on any trip to London, indeed a duty, as I would often take a bundle of Terrace Talks for the shop to sell on a commission only basis. Something that I continued after moving to London when dropping off the latest issue of new frontiers.
Another highlight of the shop was its notice board. “Fixtures wanted” and “players needed” were at the heart of but educational and social courses were widely publicised, all pulling like minded people together.
In 1989 the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award for annual British sports writing award sponsored by William Hill but conceived with John Gaustad was launched. Shunning populist titles and ghosted biographies, it sought out true sports writing. The first winner was “True Blue: The Oxford Boat Race Mutiny”. Since, the prize has probably been won more often by books about cycling rather than football. It can be considered to be the Mercury Prize of sport book writing.
Publishing began to feature more strongly in Sportspages’ history as it published a range of new books and re-published some lost 1930s American classic sports’ books, often covering heavy weight boxing, US football and baseball, often with mob undertones, long lost classics found a new audience. I found interest in sports I didn’t know I was interested in.
A Manchester branch opened in 1992 (but succumbed to the IRA bombing).
Within a decade, ever increasing West End rents and the internet were putting shops under pressure. In 2005 Sportspages went into administration and closed shortly afterwards. The internet rendered such niche operations surplus to requirements whilst rents saw tradition Soho shops (I was thinking Denmark Street and its 60s musical heritage rather than anything else) replaced by faceless chains.
The name “Sportspages” passed to a different organisation, a website “offering thousands of sports books and items of sporting memorabilia on every sport (but) with the same sense of aspiration to show case as broad and as deep a range of sports books and sports memorabilia as possible”.
John Gaustad died in June 2016. The web site lives on.
Spreadsheet Heaven? Yes or no depending on your tastes.
If you want to know who was the 1000th player to play for City or how much we sold Nigel Pepper for, there is a spreadsheet for it. Indeed, there are many spreadsheets across the York City South web site.
For the first time, they are brought together into one place. Just see the “History” page and follow the “Spreadsheet Heaven“ link if you’re interested and I fully appreciate and acknowledge many people will not be interested.
Many of the spreadsheets have been built up over 30 years with the help of others, notably Andy Naylor and Paul Bowser.
They cover many different aspects of City’s history and all are lovingly maintained, whilst 100% accuracy cannot be guaranteed, they are all living (and evolving) documents that contain a wealth of information.
Warning, each contains much, much more than is listed below.
Andy Naylor maintains a series of spreadsheets which details every City match result since 1922 together with match details and seasonal analysis. They bring together (and extend) the work originally undertaken by David Batters in his 2 “Complete History” books. Radio York were recently quoting that City had never before scored 4 goals in more goals in more than 2 successive games. Wins over Rochdale and Morecambe extended that record from 2 games to 4. Guess where the stat came from?
A couple of weeks later it became apparent that City were closing in on a club record for the number of goals scored in a calendar month. We scored 24 in April 1927 and we smashed that record by reaching 26 with the 5-1 win over Aldershot. For many our spreadsheets have allowed fans to pin point their first ever City game.
Next is the squad spreadsheet which lists every player to have played for City, Nico Lawrence was #1261 since 1922, their personal and playing details, including incoming / outgoing transfer details and for many, details of the clubs they have played for since leaving City.
The transfer fees received can be split into around two thirds for home grown players whilst the total value of sales (£11m) dwarves fees paid (3.5m).
It also allowed some more esoteric club records to be confirmed, including 2 concerning Mark Kitching. He set a record length between his first and second City appearances whilst also seeing the biggest drop in shirt numbers across 2 consecutive City shirts.
Many readers will be familiar with David Batters’ work, we have extended the match line ups that appear towards the back of his books to cover 2008 onwards. The more recent seasons include additional details including injuries and other absences, check out the seasonal review pages on the web site.
One spreadsheet that always causes much debate is the one where I detail all City’s keepers and their City records. It includes a scientific / numbers based ranking of who is City’s best ever keeper. However, it would take a much better man than me to factor in all those other imponderables such as era, the relative success (or otherwise) of the City teams in which they played and other external factors to move my analysis on to a more rounded viewpoint. As they say, there are lies, damned lies and statistics that might be supported by the rankings which put City’s top 2 keepers as being from the past 5 years.
The manager’s spreadsheet does what it says on the tin, including City’s playing record under each and their personal details. A backing tab lists over 400 “backroom” appointees at City, including “Pitch & Ball Boy Steward”, Commissionaire and “Official Car Park Director”, all dating back to the days when senior Supporters’ Club officials provided, presumably, unpaid help to City.
Elsewhere one spreadsheet lists City’s league record season by season and calculates an average place in the pyramid, 79th in case you’re interested, that’s about mid table in League 2 (or Division 4 depending on how old you are). It goes onto analysis league position and worryingly, we are more likely to finish in the bottom quarter than anywhere else in the league.
If money, not positions, is for you, the accounts spreadsheet shows City’s financial performance every year since 1922. Today’s adage of the higher up the pyramid, the bigger the losses, was true for City in the1970s as some big losses (for the time) were recorded as we reached Division 2, they would have been a lot bigger if City hadn’t sold some of their biggest assets (and I’m not talking Peter Bainbridge and Ian Robb), I mean club houses, of which City sold 7 as they moved away from owning houses to provide accommodation for new signings. On a side note, I’ll always remember when Graeme Crawford told YCS how Bobby Sibbald found out he was leaving. It was when City sent new signing Dave Chambers to his rented club house to measure up for new curtains.
For around 30 years from the 1970s, City’s accounts were assiduously reported in rich detail by Malcolm Huntington in the Yorkshire Evening Press. Check out the details. Nowadays, given accounting requirements and the YEP’s journalistic methods, we just get a headline figure.
Finally, a spreadsheet form to join York City South, you know it makes sense.
Good Old Mum My first memories of watching City included the old programme shop, situated inside the Grosvenor Road turnstiles, on your left as you made your way towards the Pop Stand
I say shop, in actual fact is was a hut, bought second hand off York Railway Station when its useful working live as a refreshment point had come to an end. Well stocked with Division 4 programmes, usually as a result of Ray Wynn’s travels and a smattering of other programme and various little nick nacks, it was a mecca for a small boy, as much fun as a primary school boy could have in York on a Saturday afternoon.
By 1974 and promotion to Division 2 (aka The Championship), a portakabin appeared in the car par to replace it, eventually that was replaced by a permanent structure. That provided more space and a little more varied stock.
Stock included a range of souvenirs (ties, badges, scarves pennants, pewter tankards and enamel badges and more), many items came with the new City "yc" roundel symbol as Keith Hunt, George Teasdale and the new promotions team christened City as the “friendly club”.
Before that, the dedicated supporter generally had to rely on York’s sport shops, Mitchells (Colliergate) and Newitts (Goodgramgate). I put them in that order in deference to Tom Mitchell, proprietor of one and a former City winger, director and manager and whose family are still active City supporters to this day.
Both were general sports shops, their stock in trade seemed to be supplying equipment to local sportsmen and they always did a good trade in Subbuteo sets.
I don’t recall either doing much business in replica shirts, but that was the days before teams changed kit every season.
For me, with no replica shirt available, it was down to good old Mum to come up with the goods. Back in the day, she was always a keen knitter.
As City changed to maroon shirts, Mum started knitting maroon coloured jumpers. First off, a thick maroon jumper. Intended (and used as) as a thermal jumper for an early school ski trip, worn as an outer jumper with an jumper underneath, it was long in length and baggy and when back home, so baggy that it was almost unwearable.
Next Christmas, another maroon jumper appeared, a V neck. Guess what was included in my Christmas presents another year later, another maroon jumper, this time a round necked maroon jumper.
By now, well stocked with jumpers, Mum’s attention turned to my extremities as City sought at new beginning in red and blue.
Mum’s first attempt at a bobble hat didn’t go too well. The bobble fell apart almost as soon as it was knit, I ended up with what look like a teapot cosy.
Undeterred, a year later, another red and blue bobble hat appeared, this time with a fine red bobble.
With 2 bobble hats, next up was gloves. Largely dark blue, on each hand, alternate fingers were knit with red wool. I would often jest to my late arriving friend as he came through turnstiles, lookout for me and I’d raise the appropriate amount of fingers on each hand to tell you the score.
Somewhere along the line, a light blue coloured jumper appeared, shades of the light blue that City wore as a change kit throughout most of the 1980s.
That was the Mum’s knitting days until grandchildren beckoned.
The original maroon jumper was binned as soon as deemed appropriate. A second maroon jumper was thrown away a couple of years ago with holes in each elbow whilst the final one is still in ”home service”, one elbow hole but too precious to throw away. The light blue jumper saw active service as a ski jumper but was much derided (by above friend) but is still in active service in the garden.
Both bobble hats and gloves remain in use to this day. The bobble hat with a bobble is often to be seen inside a football ground but is generally replaced by a bland black bobble hat outside the ground. The gloves still get a match day airing in that narrow window between the need for thermal gloves and no gloves.
2026 Almanac JANUARY: Its late January already, all the predictions for January have already come true. No point repeating them now.
FEBRUARY: The goals continue to flow for Ollie Pearce. Meanwhile, first Dominic Calvert-Lewis and then Danny Welbeck go down with medium term injuries putting their availability for selection for the World Cup in doubt.
MARCH: Thomas Tuchel names his first England squad of the year. Dominic Solanki is selected as back up striker to Harry Kane but drops out of the squad after injuring himself in training.
APRIL: City’s season ends with a win at Rochdale. With England’s attacking options falling by the wayside, Tuchel puts in an emergency call to his data analysts asking for an urgent review of all reliable English qualified strikers.
MAY: Ollie Pearce is a surprise call up for England’s World Cup squad. Tuchel said, “Pearce scores goals wherever he goes, I have no doubt that he will repulse all opponents”.
JUNE: Close season, but football continues, another Y Front drops through the letter box, it is almost as prolific as Ollie Pearce Meanwhile, England’s plans for the World Cup are dashed when Donald Trump refuses entry to the USA for Ollie Pearce citing, ”no unqualified pip squeak is coming into the US of A to attack America’s defences”.
JULY: All is good in the world. England win a test match and the Ashes are forgotten. At the World Cup, no almanac is needed to know that England are unlucky to be eliminated.
AUGUST: Pearce out, he’s not good, no goals in month. The natives are restless and sunburnt as a mini heatwave hits. A week later, Yorkshire Water declare a drought and water rationing.
SEPTEMBER: As the transfer window closes, Matt Uggla turns down a six figure bid from a League 2 club for Ollie Pearce. A day later, Manchester United make a 7 figure bid for Ollie Pearce. The Manchester Evening News headline is ”Next Haaland On His Way To Old Trafford”. Matt Uggla admits, “City don’t need the money, but if a player thinks he can better himself by going to a club like Manchester United, then who am I to stand in his way”. However, there is disappointment as Ollie Pearce declares his love for Josh Stones and City and turns down the move.
OCTOBER: Undeterred, the Glazier family make a counter bid for Pearce and Stones which involves buying York City in exchange for Manchester United. Matt Uggla engages Douglas Craig’s old lawyers to seek the best possible deal for City.
NOVEMBER: Details of the Glazier bid are revealed when the Glaziers’ bid to buy City is rejected when they fail to pass by the FA and Football Regulator’s fit and proper person test.
DECEMBER: The future is unwritten but there is a tasty Boxing Day clash against Harrogate to savour. Turkeys to the slaughter?
Mind Games They often say success breeds success or that clubs can get stuck in a downwards spiral.
True or false? Very much true in my mind.
Our end of 2025 run clearly demonstrated that, witness the last 2 games, a late equaliser against Boston was followed by late winner at Altrincham. You could say that never say never desire carried over in to 2026 with the slow start at Sutton to come from behind to win.
Confidence running throughout the team.
You could say the same about players.
I give you Josh Stones. Flying at Oldham before he came to City where he found himself largely consigned to the bench. Not a happy bunny, when he got his chance late in game, again he appeared not a happy bunny. He cut a frustrated figure and regularly picked up yellow cards.
It was only when he got a regular place in the starting eleven that his confidence appeared to return. With a run of games under his belt, the difference was immense. Goals, assists and work rate were of the highest order.
Joe Felix might be experiencing the opposite. It is often difficult to understand how much the psychology of a player can affect their game.
You could say, aged 26, he is a “seasoned pro”, but most of that time was possibly not as a full time professional and it is easy to suggest that his career to date amounts to 2 good seasons, both under Adam Hinshelwood. He has possibly been the biggest sufferer under Stuart Maynard and a new system.
Joe Felix only has to look at his mantelpiece to know what City’s supporters think of him and needs to remember class is permanent. He’ll be back.
Meanwhile, Greg Olley made his first City appearance, as a substitute, on September 13, and had been in the match day squad for nearly every game since although Stuart Maynard did note he’d been left out because of a little niggle on a couple of occasions. Given he'd probably spent a month or more in training before his debut, how long does it take for a player to come back from a serious injury? As we leave January behind, I like to think he should have reached full physical fitness well before now. The bigger unknown is whether he can fully trust his body and give 100% commitment to every challenge.
To date, since being released by Hull in 2018, he has spent all his career in non league football, In 7 year at Gateshead, he performed admirably as they out performed their budget.
Given their reputation as a club that sells plenty of players in to the Football League, he was always overlooked. I wonder why?
If City are to be promoted this season, when I look around the side, the area that concerns me the most is midfield. Turning 30 in February, Greg Olley has never played in the EFL, would I want him as my midfield warrior in League 2?
Table Toppers In all of City’s 103 years of history, we have only been league champions once and topped the league during the season in 12 different seasons.
With 3 of those occasions coming in the last 7 years, some might even ask, have City ever had it so good? Maybe the answer to that one will come at the end of this season.
Many of the table topping stints have occurred early season, like in both September 1937 and 1947 when City went top of the table on the first Saturday of the month and stayed there for one week.
City were again table toppers in either August 1954 or August 1958. In those days, teams on the same points were separated by goal average (GF divided by GA), unlike today when goal difference (GF less GA) is used. It is unclear how a team who had conceded no goals was treated. To add more cloud, in those days, often league tables were not published until after the second weekend of the season, so it is difficult to accurately say when City were top, suffice to say, it was one of these 2 years.
In 1954, one unofficial source (11v11.com) put City top after a first day (21/08/54) 6-2 away win at Wrexham when debutants Arthur Bottom and Norman Wilkinson grabbed 5 goals between themselves. Their table put City ahead of 2 teams who won without conceding. We were displaced as leaders a week later as a run of 3 defeats and then a draw saw manager Jimmy McCormick sacked. The Happy Wanderers seemed a long way away.
Mathematicians will argue which was the bigger, City’s goal average of 3 (6/2) or Barrow’s 5-0 win, but that’s a discussion for another publication, maybe Y Numbers.
In August 1958, the same source put City 3rd after 3 games (and never top), despite conceding no goals and behind 2 teams who had each won and had conceded.
We had to wait until the opening day of the 1980/1 season and a 4-0 win over Bournemouth (thanks to goals from Terry Eccles, Ian McDonald, Gary Ford and John Byrne, the first time good friends Ford and Byrne had both scored in the same game). Despite winning again 2 days later, City slipped to 2nd place. The start of slide that saw City finish bottom of the table come the end of the season. It was Barry Lyons’s only full season in charge. It wouldn’t be the last time that City slumped from top to bottom. The only saving grace that season was that Lyons stuck around and signed Keith Walwyn in summer 1981.
Walwyn’s goals were partially responsible for City’s next table topping run. We briefly topped Division 4 during the early parts of the 1983/4 season (September 6 - 23, displaced on Friday night, regained top spot on September 24 until being displaced on October 18. We won 2-1 at Northampton on October 29 (2 Walwyn goals) to regain Division 4 top spot, a position we retained for the next 6 glorious months as we pulled well clear at the top of the table.
The following season saw another good start, going top on October 2 when beating leaders Bristol Rovers by 1-0, another Walwyn goal, I seem to remember, a fine header, before being displaced 4 days later after a 1-0 defeat away to Bristol City. FA Cup glory beckoned.
It was a near 8 year wait to go top again. Paul Barnes had replaced Keith Walwyn and we eventually went top on August 29 1992 after winning our opening 3 games (Barnes scored in each game and our defence wasn’t breached at all).
Good early season form saw us stay top until December 29, except for a week from December 12 when Barnet were top due to an FA rule change which meant teams were differentiated on goals scored (not goal difference). A 2-4 defeat at Scarborough saw us return to top spot (on goals scored) as Barnet lost to nil. Whilst attack (Barnes, McCarthy and Canham) and midfield (Pepper and Swann) largely took care of themselves, central defence was maybe an area of concern. Veteran Paul Stancliffe was a strong leader but he lost his more than able lieutenant, Ray Warburton to a season ending injury in September. Neither Paul Atkin nor Steve Tutill ever made the position their own. From December, we stumbled and stuttered throughout the second half of the season. Clinging on for automatic promotion and despite some good results, a first 5-0 away win at Barnet included, we eventually slipped to 4th place and the play offs. The rest is history.
We next topped the table in August 2003. Despite winning our opening 4 league games, it wasn’t until the last of those (August 26) that we actually topped the table. We were displaced 4 days later. Disbelief followed as once again we plummeted from top to bottom. This time, with dire consequences.
In August 2006, City went top after the opening 4 games (3 wins and a draw). Despite a 1-0 Bank Holiday Monday win 3 days later, City lost top spot on goal difference in one of those “exciting” non league seasons when many got excited at the prospect of several teams reaching 100 points based on early season results and PPG calculations. In the end, Dagenham were champions with 95 points and next best were Oxford and Morecambe on 81. No need to remind you where the season ended for Clayton Donaldson and City.
We had to wait another 13 years for City’s “golden era” and the covid hit 2019/20 season. City were briefly top after 16 matches (November 2) and had regained top spot (March 7) when the season was suspended, City later being placed second on PPG after a season long tussle with King’s Lynn.
Last season saw us hit top in September with the 3-0 win over AFC Fylde, regain it the following with the away win at FC Halifax (2-1). As 5 teams jostled for top spot, we had spells, more than most, on top in November and December until Barnet took top spot decisively on January 14.
January 2026 saw City top the league again for a couple of weeks before Rochdale’s games in hand told.
Let’s hope we’re top of the league again when it really matters.
Issue #62
Testimonials Heroes & Villains Possibly the most famous of all the testimonial games to be held at Bootham Crescent was in October 1969 when City drew 5-5 with our own 1955 Happy Wanderers. It was to be the last time our 1955 side played together, 10 of the team with only the reclusive Arthur Bottom being absent. 3,537 saw the game and the gate receipts were £745. The beneficiary was City’s right back Gerry Baker, who been forced to retire after receiving a serious knee injury 10 months previous.
Less than 4 months later, the next testimonial game was held at Bootham Crescent and again, the recipient missed the game, this time for very different reasons. Barry Jackson was serving an 8 week suspension and the FA refused him permission to play. 3,120 fans saw City beat Hull by 3-2 with Jackson netting £830.
s the rules were relaxed, Bury and Colchester hosted testimonial games for Paul Aimson as his career was ended through injury.
Moving forward to September 1977 when 3,335 saw City beat an All Stars XI 4-2 (Gordon Staniforth hat trick) in Barry Swallow’s testimonial game. The opposition were largely Yorkshire based, captained by Billy Bremner, they included his teammates David Harvey, Terry Cooper, Eddie Gray, Mick Jones, Paul Reaney, Paul Madeley, Peter Lorimer, Jackie Charlton (and brother Bobby) plus Alan Woodward, Kevin Hector, Colin Todd, Alan Hinton, Cliff Calvert and Alan Warboys and Bruce Bannister, the villains of Bristol Rovers “smash and grab” strike force as both teams fought to gain promotion from Division 3 in 1974. Never before or since has such a strong opposition faced City in a testimonial game and is perhaps a mark of the esteem in which Swallow was hold at the time. A special full colour, a first for City, testimonial programme was produced.
Around that time, away from City, players with City connections who enjoyed testimonials included Peter Lorimer had 2 testimonials at Leeds (a second was awarded after 15 years’ service), Mick Coop (ex loanee (Coventry)), Denis Smith (April 1980 when a Stoke 1970s side played the then current Stoke 80s (the game featured Gordon Banks, Geoff Hurst and Peter Shilton amongst the Stoke legends)) and in May 1982, City player Malcolm Crosby returned to his former club Aldershot to play in his testimonial game against West Ham. Always popular testimonial opposition, West Ham visited Gillingham in May 1984 for Ron Hillyard’s testimonial game. . A year later, Manchester United visited Hereford in Colin Addison’s testimonial.
Back at Bootham Crescent, we had 2 testimonial games in the 1980s. John Simpson was a left back who played 220 games for City between 1948 and 1954 at the end of his professional career. Later a “career physio”, he served numerous clubs before being appointed trainer / physio at City in 1977. Awarded a testimonial game in 1983 he retired soon afterwards. At City, ever the loyal club man, he roped his wife Dorothy into unpaid duties as laundry lady and Main Stand refreshment duties. The game saw City lose 3-2 to Leeds in front of a 3,066 crowd was 64 year old Simpson making a late appearance as a substitute, leisurely sauntering down the wing.
Next up was Derek Hood in November 1988. Hood had left City a few months earlier, now with his injury ravished body, he was desperately trying to prolong his career in non league football. The current City side drew 3-3 with a Hood Select XI based around his 1984 Division 4 Championship side. The game was notable for 2 goals for City’s keeper, Chris Marples who ended the game up top and a head injury which necessitated 31 stitches for Denis Smith. To add to the occasion, former England (cricket) captain kicked the game off, Bryan Foster (groundsman) and Jeff Miller (physio) made brief appearances as late substitutes. A 2,012 crowd saw Hood net proceeds of about £3,000.
Away from York, the late 80s onwards saw testimonials for: As the Bosman era was on the horizon, City would enjoy on more golden era of testimonials as the team of the 80s came towards the end of their careers.
Mighty Mites As we enter the New Year (2026), it is time to start thinking about player of the season.
We’ve all got our own thoughts, but no one seems head and shoulders above the rest, so just to be different, I’m going to name my candidates for academy player of the season.
It should be remembered, that the players are between 16 and 18 years old, although many have had several years with City’s various under 16 sides whilst at school.
Every summer, about 10 schoolboys sign a 2 year scholarship to start after their GCSEs have ended, the players are at different stages of their physical development.
A prime example was Richard Cresswell, he had 2 seasons as a professional with City as a bit part player when he looked physically weak. Thanks to reserve team football, a loan spell and a few sporadic first team appearances, City saw enough to persevere. He came back in the summer of 1998, just turned 21 and was a different player with a much more physical presence. Goals flowed, England Under 21 caps followed as did a £950,000 transfer to Sheffield Wednesday.
The players who impress in August of year one, might have fallen by the wayside at the end of year 2. Some might take to a full time football career in the academy, others might not. In the wider world, I imagine we all know example of friends who flourished or perished between the ages of 16 and 18, football in no different.
Under the tutelage of Dan Wilson and Tim Ryan, as with any football academy, there will be more failures than successes. City’s management duo often reprise the mantra that results are not the most important consideration, player development being more important. Consequently, City have often fielded a young academy side, the side that started in the Youth Cup against Bradford City had 6 first year scholars in the starting line up, It might suggest that the staff don’t rate the year 2 scholars highly enough so to put the emphasis on the younger boys. The down side is that the younger side is often playing against bigger, more physically developed players whose footballing nous is also greater.
Whilst development might be more important than results, the real results should be seeing scholars graduate to professional contracts and first team places.
Unfortunately, since 2021, 12 of City’s academy starlets have signed professional contracts with City. Between them, they made just 4 first appearances for City, all as a substitute.
For the record, they were Leon Gibson-Booth, Jack Degruchy, Jonny Haase, George Harrison, Reiss Harrison, Alex Hernandez, Luke Jones, Kyle Lancaster, Bill Marshall, Elliot Owen, Johnny Shepherd and Archie Whitfield.
So this season, who are the starlets who might be nominees for City’s Mighty Mite Of The Season award? I propose:
Given City’s record of promoting youth to the first team. You might be wondering what’s the point.
I give you Harrogate Town. In mid November, Harrogate went to Notts County with a 14 man squad, injuries and international call ups meant they could only name 3 substitutes for a League 2 game. EFL rules stipulate a 22 man (outfield) squad is named in September and remains in place until the January transfer window opens. If you name less than 22, you can add free agents ((hopefully, unlike Nico Lawrence, they come near match fit) to it. The one saving grace is that under 21 plyers are exempt from the 22, so a club can use any number of under 21 players in their match day squad,
This season, for City that would mean Mo Fadera and academy players, potentially some of the names above, but I doubt if we have many, if any, ready for the rigours of week in , week out “men’s” football.
For City, promotion to the EFL would possibly mean the development squad becomes a reality, a pathway for the shining lights of the academy to continue their career with City and hopefully progress to the first team.
2nd Honeymoon (What A Way To End It All)
So after the Hinsh messy divorce has come a second honeymoon. Stuart Maynard, as the “other man” had to win over the fans. Hinsh was a hard act to follow. For all his foibles, he was a much loved manager, I’m sure he’ll be remembered with affection for a long time by City fans.
Maynard wasted no time in putting his stamp on the team.
Shuffling personnel and formation, out with a back 4 and in with a new formation, it was far from a complete overhaul after the first 4 games of the season under Hinsh. Since his arrival, the summer signings have generally kicked on, although I sometimes worry about Maynard’s apparent fixation of moving wingers back into a wing back role.
Unfortunately about the only player not to have progressed under Maynard is Joe Felix, an easy choice as last season’s player of the season. His more advanced wing back role has seen him both expected to provide the width whilst confined to a more forward position and wider position than he often played last season when he seemed to have more license to roam about the pitch into an inside right position and even popping up on the left wing.
Being played further forward, his lung bursting runs to cover opposition breakaways haven’t been as effective when his starting position is often higher up the pitch.
Maybe a radical solution is needed to get the best out of Felix. Move him to right centre back. On the outside of a back 3, he’d have license to roam and with more height across the whole side this season, his lack of inches wouldn’t be as big a handicap as it would have been last season. There is only one problem, whilst MFW is around, it is a non starter.
2nd Honeymoon (Bigger Splash) Between 60s Merseybeat and the late 70s post-punk wave that washed up Echo & The Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes, there was Liverpool’s local heroes Deaf School, a head spinning cocktail of glam, art school attitude and pub rock. This 1976 release of “2nd Honeymoon”, the first of their three albums in the late 1970s, made them many friends but failed to woo the record buying public.
The tongue in cheek faux fatalism of “What A Way To End It All” flirted with vaudevillian pop and came closest to giving them a hit single. “Knock, Knock, Knocking” mixed rockabilly and bubble gum, whilst “Nearly Moonlit Night Motel” and “Cocktails At 8” could both easily have been Steve Harley scoring a Whitehall farce.
All the tracks contribute to the album's reputation as a significant work in the art rock genre. Its sophisticated yet accessible style resonated with a wide audience. Indeed, a couple of amateur dramatics societies have turned the LP into a stage show, the songs fitting neatly into a working class drama, the mundaneness of the working work, glammed up weekends, lotharios and unrequited love.
It was always a case of right band, wrong everything. Winning a Melody Maker rock and folk search for a new band competition and a contract with Warner Brothers just as punk was breaking wasn’t a good career move. Starting out as a 20 person collective, they whittled themselves down to a core 8 members, but that was maybe still too many to be commercially viable. I never thought we were PC in the 70s, but recent evidence suggests that even the band’s name didn’t sit comfortably with some.
Arguably, the band’s refusal to stick with one style for too long didn’t help them either.
A second album was more punk influenced whilst their final album was veered more towards English soul.
Anyone who saw them live would say that their studio recordings failed to capture of their live performances.
Dropped by their label, the band disbanded in 1978.
In Liverpool, various members formed new bands whose members included Holly Johnson, Ian Broudie and Bill Drummond as they spread their influence across Liverpool’s new wave.
In London, singer Bette Bright’s new backing band included Glen Matlock and Rusty Egan. Clive Langer turned to production. He produced early Madness recordings, pre Madness, Suggs and other band members had been Deaf School groupies. Later collaborations included Elvis Costello, David Bowie and Morrissey. Through his friendship with Costello, he wrote the music for some words that Costello was struggling to fit to music. The result was “Shipbuilding”, an iconic hit for both Robert Wyatt and Costello.
Deaf School’s legacy lives on. 4 members have children who are active in the music industry whilst 6 members remained in the music business throughout their working lives.
As a band, their on stage camaraderie was always apparent and since 1988 they have regularly got back together for live shows, including a 2015 Fibbers gig, like Adam and the Ants, returning to York nearly 40 years after their first appearance in the city.
I took my daughter to see them a couple of years ago, she knew of my love of the band but not much more. We played a game outside the venue, she had to spot the band members as they arrived.
Despite a mix of styles, she spotted them all. Silver suit, hawaiian shirt, thick jumper (in a summer heatwave), dog collar, man with sax and finally a couple, Nikki’s eyes light up, she said the woman looked “fabulous” it was the fabulous Miss Bette Bright accompanied by a pencil moustached spiv. The band had arrived.
2026 marks the 50th anniversary of “2nd Honeymoon”, so more gigs loom on the horizon in July. Despite, the passing of time, their stage shows have lost none of their excellence.
Journalist Paul Du Noyer wrote the definitive history of music in Liverpool, his book bore the line, “there are only 2 bands from Liverpool that matter, The Beatles and Deaf School”, whilst their own web site at one time had the strap line, “Deaf School, the best band in the world you’ve never heard of, and if you have, you know why”.
Sell To Succeed? Last May (2025), a national journalist who sometimes tweets City transfer rumours and gossip suggested that City had rejected a bid worth approximately £150,000 for Ollie Pearce from an unnamed League Two side.
I’ve no idea if the rumour was true or not, but if the fee was accurate how can any club sell one of its best players for that derisory figure and hope to succeed?
Elsewhere, reports suggest that the average National League club (and I’m not saying City are average) loses about £900,000 a year, if so, the Pearce fee would have covered 2 months’ losses.
Reports emanating out of Chorley suggested that the fee City paid for Craig Hewitt was in the top 10 fees ever paid for a player from that level, in other words, a decent chunk of that rumoured £150,000.
To me, that means if you want to sell to succeed, you need to be getting much bigger fees that £150,000.
Looking around the City squad, how many players might command a significant 6 figure fee? Pearce, Stones and MFW, but I’m unsure about anyone else.
Last year, some reports suggested that the Uggla family’s own company lost £2m and that was the amount they donated to City to “balance the books”. If so, that is a huge amount for one season and an amount that is almost impossible to make from player. Imagine, a Ben Godfrey sold every year and cashing in on a subsequent sell on clause and we’re about there.
Imagine selling Ollie Pearce, MFW and Josh Stones over the next 3 years to make those numbers, imagine the impact on the team and the supporter base. It doesn’t bear thinking about, ripping the heart out of the team like that.
Wolves are the latest club to find out that you cannot sell to succeed.
With City’s current funding, there is no need to accept the first bid for any player and whilst that remains the case, we don’t need to sell. But imagine a club which has to properly balance its books without relying on generous owner funding. At the current rate, we’d need to sell 2 or 3 players every season and also benefit from generous sell on clauses when those players move on (whist hoping that clubs like Cardiff and Wigan don’t have their own onerous el on clauses on our players).
Ben Godfrey being the best example of how we have benefitted. A £200,000 sale benefitted City close to £3m when he moved on from Norwich to Everton. The only other similar case would have been about 20 years earlier when Jon Greening, he left for £350,000 and we late netted about £1m in various clauses. That is 2 big sell on clauses in 30 years.
To make such a model work, we really need a strong production line of bright young talent. Unfortunately, we don’t have one. That may be City’s fault or a shortcoming of the modern game.
Our production line of talent gets no game time. Too old for the academy at 19, they are reliant on the goodwill of others for competitive game time.
In recent weeks we have seen Nico Lawrence and Craig Hewitt arrive at City, one with no games to get match sharp and one largely confined to the bench.
All told, that makes it difficult to grow the next generation which seriously hampers any sell to succeed model and hinders any grow to succeed model.
(City) Shorts Oh Bother In a recent Y Front article, I named 2 City players, Alex Newby and David McNiven (from around 25 years ago) who had twins who also played league football. I came across a set of triplets recently, one played for City, his brother was a fellow full international and their sister played volleyball. Step forward, Sander, Eino and Kadri Puri. Also, Jack McKay, our 2022 flying winger (he was fast, others can decide if his football ability qualified him as a winger) is the twin brother of Paul who has spent most of his career is the lower reaches of the Scottish Football League.
The West Ham Way? Losing?
VAR – A Solution? Another season, more controversy. Maybe we should tone it down, let the ref referee. Goal line technology works and so, most of the time, does semi automated offside. The rest doesn’t. So let’s do away with it and silence Stockley Park. Allow each side a small number, say 3, challenges per game. That way, the teams can contest contentious decisions but the noise and delay about forensically checking every goal and many challenges goes away. Stockley Park is only involved if a team wants them involve.
Since … Is it me or is the number of controversial decisions reducing? Or there again, I might just becoming numb to them.
Tipping Point Given our limited capacity and current high level of support, is there a tipping point day when City start to chase match day ticket sales over season ticket sales. I’m not saying I agree, but that is how the Premier League strives to maximise income.
The Price Of Football Podcast A late convert, I had my first question read out recently, more than 13 months after I raised it. Previously, I’d recognised only one other contributor as a City supporter.
Moaning Newcastle For the recent Wyne Tear derby, Newcastle weren’t allowed to wear their usual shirts to avoid a clash with the home side’s shirts. That weekend, given 3 colour clashes, all the other 6 away Premier League sides opted to discard their normal kit and play in something else, Iain Dunn is your man if you want to know the actual colours, I’ll stick with pinks and pastels. In most away games, Newcastle would opt to play in an all blue or all green kit, so it was moaning for moaning’s sake.
York City Ladies It was a great FA Cup win for the Ladies away to Altrincham in the FA Cup. The ladies leading the way where our men fear to tread. It many ways the reward, the draw for the next round was unkind for the lowest ranked team left in the competition, but the consolation is a tie against a team from the same tier with £54,000 in prize money for the winners and a genuine chance to bring one of the big boys, sorry girls, to the LNER in the next round. Well done to the Ladies and the 586 fans who saw the Alty win.
You Can’t Please All Of The People All Of The Time City’s game at Sutton gets pushed back to a Tuesday night and some people complain about a midweek evening trip down south, game gets pulled forward 3 days and some people complain about the late notice and the move into the 3pm black out slot. I suspect a Saturday means considerably more City fans will be in attendance.
Issue #61
Christmas Cheer Until 1957 there was a full league schedule of football on Christmas Day with the return fixtures being played a day later. Spare a thought for 1930, Christmas Day fell on a Thursday, City beat Carlisle 4-0 and lost the return fixture 2-0 a day later. Next day, a Saturday, a 3rd game in 3 days saw City draw 1-1 with Rotherham. In the days before substitutes (and recovery pants), 10 players played in all 3 games.
Subsequently, depending on which day of the week Christmas Day fell, there were number of occasions when City played 3 games in 4 days.
Sid Storey, born in 1919 is the most recent City player to be born on Christmas Day whilst in 1948 John “Jack” Price is the only player to score his first City goal on Christmas Day, he also scored on his only other City appearance before leaving the professional game. Storey’s City association spanned nearly 40 years. Signed in 1947, come 1955, at the age of 35, he was maybe the lesser light in our forward line, behind Arthur Bottom and Norman Wilkinson, of our 1954/5 FA Cup semi final side. After his playing career came to an end, he later returned to City, firstly as a trainer / coach and in 1984 when he drove the open top bus on City’s celebratory tour of York after the 1983/4 101 point title winning Division 4 season.
I’m far too young to remember Christmas Day football but recall some cracking City Boxing Day games at Bootham Crescent and elsewhere. Having been outplayed by Sunderland in September 1974, the return fixture on Boxing Day saw City lose 2-0 in front of a 35,367 Roker Park crowd, by far the biggest crowd ever to see City play on a Boxing Day.
I also recall The Shay in 1983 and 2 Keith Walwyn goals in our 2-1 win, Christmas food was friend Martin’s mum’s homemade vol au vents.
A year later and a division higher, it was a Dale Banton brace in the 4-0 win over Burnley.
That was our last Boxing Day win for 10 years when a Paul Barnes hat trick helped us to another 4-0 win, this time over Blackpool in 1994 (a big shout out to my spell checker for correcting me when I left the last letter off Blackpool). In those distant days, the early Alan Little years, it seemed like City always got a bagful of goals against the Tangerines, for me reminisces of those very early Christmases when grandma’s Christmas present was an orange, we were poor.
I had been a hard 10 years, no wins and only 4 Boxing Day goals for City, in that decade you could say City had had plenty of turkeys (and a Bird as well).
Usually Boxing Day is the day of local derbies, but I’m not sure what happened in 1992 when City’s game was away at Cardiff, at least it was an entertaining 3-3 draw for the City fans who made the trip.
Most years, Boxing Day have seen a tasty local derby, the nadir was possibly being 2004 and a 5-1 defeat down the road, we recovered with a 3-1 win exactly a year later over them.
Thankfully, a 1-0 win at North Ferriby on Boxing Day 2016 prevented another nadir in front of 1,950 fans, strangely North Ferriby refused to make the game all ticket, stating they couldn’t afford to print tickets and refusing City’s offer to print tickets at no cost to them, no doubt hoping to maximise sales on the day at the expense of any ground segregation. Exactly a year later, City won the repeat fixture 4-1 with a Jon Parkin hat trick in front of a crowd of just 1,001. We didn’t have to wait long for the next nadir, a 5-1 2018 Boxing Day defeat at Darlington, I was going to name our line up for that game but will save your from the agonies.
Parkin, Alf Pat Patrick and Paul Barnes (the 4-0 1994 win over Blackpool) are City’s only Boxing Day hat trick heroes.
Will anyone join them this year when Boxing Day (2025) brings Boston to York, we’ve only played them once before on Boxing Day, a 3-0 home defeat in the Football League in 2002, surely, this year, it must be better.
Scouting For Boys There has been plenty of recent talk and even more speculation regarding City’s recruitment and scouting set up.
I suspect in many ways it is not too different to many other clubs in that the staff is itinerant and their future is closely linked to the manager’s own longevity. Certainly at non league level, mates of manager and staff who are happy to get a free match ticket, stay in the game, in return for a player or team report.
Just look at City’s Linkedin page and it is littered with the names of scouts and recruitment analysts, some names I’ve never heard of and in at least one case, a much respected but sadly deceased City man. Greg Olley also appears on the list with his “talent identification” PFSA (Professional Football Scouting Association) qualifications.
Yes, Hinsh brought 3 players to York from his time at Worthing, including Joe Felix who he’d scouted when playing for Dulwich Hamlet against Worthing. I can go back to John Bird (Jon McCarthy) and Denis Smith whose recruitment included players from their former clubs. Other managers were less successful with a similar approach.
Over the years, we’ve seen several City managers recruit stand out opposition players, many abjectly failing to reproduce that form when arriving at City.
In the past, some clubs have openly admitted to using Football Manager and similar games to scout players, more clubs resort to “professional” paid scouting systems, most famously the Brighton / Tony Bloom model which they have licensed to Hearts and Grimsby. Brighton’s recruitment is the stand out model and at the moment I suspect Hearts are more than happy with their recruitment using the same database. Ditto Grimsby who are going well in League 2.
Any database is only as good as the data contained within it and should be used as a starting point.
As an aside, as editor of new frontiers, I was asked to give player attributes for City’s squad, both professional and youth team players, for the first ever issue of Championship Manager. With little guidance on how to rate the players and having not seen any youth team games off I went. With over 30 players and more than 20 attributes to assess in some cases it was a case of giving the best player 20 and working down to one for the worst. It would seem my scores went into the system without any real moderation. I rated Paul Barnes as 20 out of 20 for finishing ability, that put him alongside the gods of the day, Alan Shearer, Gary Lineker et al.
When the game came out, I could put Dean Kiely in goal, Steve Tutill in front of him, Steve Bushell in attacking centre midfield and Paul Stephenson out wide and I got 2 immediate promotion seasons. Add Wayne Osborne, a youth team left back and sign Joe Parkinson from Blackpool for the right wing and City could take on all comers. Whichever league we were in, Paul Barnes was always top scorer.
Back to reality and today’s “off the peg” scouting models, like Wyscout, which I recall Neal Ardley enthusing about. They allow literally thousands of players to be assessed with the press of a few buttons. That should be just one of many starting points in the recruitment process. It would seem that Hinsh also used Wyscout.
At City, Matt Uggla and Adam Hinshelwood spoke about the final piece in their recruitment process being taking prospective new signings on a tour of the ground and training facilities and then a meal in York. A desire to look beyond their footballing ability and at their wider personality to determine if they might be a good fit within the club.
Although only 3 months into the season, whatever recruitment process City have employed during the summer, the results seem largely positive. Plenty of good eggs and few, if any, rotten eggs.
Recruitment is never easy and it should involve many people and the more data and opinions the better. You could say many models work.
At the end of the day, we can all say who we think has the final say in recruitment, but one thing is certain, only one person signs off the budget.
Out For The Count Many readers will be familiar with David Batters’ books and his seasonal spreadsheets which list City’s fixtures and line ups across every season.
One of the things that Paul, Andy and myself have done as part of our “little stats group” is to continue those onto the present day. Since, the start of the 2023/4 season, they have been extended to list player unavailability, largely due to injury but including other factors such as suspension and personal reasons.
Much of this information is gathered from managers’ press conferences and is only as good as the manager is prepared to admit and even then be can subjective. Whilst there is a thin line between coming back from injury but not match fit and there will always be cases of personal reasons that the club and player want to keep private. I got the impression that Alex Hernandez might have been injured more in his 2 years as a professional than was ever stated in press conferences.
Last season, we went to FC Halifax with only 18 fit professionals. Our 34 man squad decimated by 9 injuries and with another 7 players out on loan. By the time we went to Oldham in January, our 33 man squad (bolstered by George Grumley from the academy) was decimated by 14 absentees (7 out on loan, 5 injuries, Jeff King suspended and Levi Andoh away on compassionate leave). That meant Zanda Siziba was our 19th man.
A season before, October 2023, had seen our 38 man squad reduced to 21 fit players (10 injured and 7 more out on loan) when we won at Dagenham in early October.
It is only now I see a common thread, threadbare, we won all those games.
That said, over this and the 2 previous seasons, a couple of other trends are apparent. This season, one again we’ve seen a reduction in the total squad size, more players loaned out and fewer injuries.
Across the whole of the 2023/4 season, we had an average of 36.3 players, given those who were injured or loaned out, we had an available match day squad of 23.6 players. That meant around 5 or 6 fit players were left out of each match day squad.
This season (2024/5) we have a smaller squad, more players loaned out and fewer injuries. The recent games against Gateshead and Eastleigh were slightly worrying, including 5 players out in injured at Eastleigh. We were down to the bare bones, especially considering the 18 players available included 3 keepers. The squad nearly picked itself with little or no room for options. Nico Lawrence was the only pro not involved whilst Eddie Kettlewell from the academy was named for a second successive appearance on the bench.
Take a look at our squad numbers over the past 3 seasons.
Season Full Squad Loaned Out Working Squad Injured Available 2023/4 36.3 6.3 30 6.4 23.6 2024/5 34.1 7.7 26.4 4.4 22.0 2025/6 31.9 7.8 24.1 1.9 22.2 Eastleigh(A) 32 9 23 5 18 Fortunately, most of the squad can perform adequately well at wing back and most of our midfielders seem to flit between defensive and attacking roles. The recent trend of playing Pearce and Stones together leaves us short of proven back up striker options.
From the table above, season on season, the total squad size has decreased since 2023 and the number of players out on loan has increased, meaning a smaller sized squad with on average 4 or 5 fit players not making each match day squad.
You might say that we run a lean squad and can call upon new signings and the loan market when required.
True, that is all well and good this season, but could that be a problem as an English Football League club? Imagine Josh Stones gets a ban for 5 yellow cards and Ollie Pearce pulls a hamstring and we are virtually bereft of suitable striker options.
Squad lists are submitted when the summer and winter transfer windows close and then you’re stuck with those squads until the next window opens. There is no chance to bolster the squad for 3+ months.
No doubt the size and make up of the squad in a Football League environment is a challenge that City would relish.
Christmas Fog (and Snow) I can count 4 City games that have been abandoned in Christmas week.
The first was an FA Cup replay at Nelson (near Burnley) in 1930. City were 2 up when the fog descended and the game was abandoned after 52 minutes. City won the re-arranged replay by 3-2 a day later in the days of replays and before the 10 day rule. A week later, Nelson sunk to the bottom of Division 3 North and were voted out of the Football League at the end of that season.
December 21, 1946, City were an Alf Patrick goal up at New Brighton (Liverpool) when the game was abandoned after 72 minutes. City lost the re-arranged game by 2-1 4 months later.
Fast forward to 1976 and a December 29 when City hosted Lincoln in a Division 3 game.
Signed on loan from Hull just before Christmas, it was just a second game in City’s colours for loanees Gordon Staniforth and Chris Galvin as the players slipped and slid on a pitch that became increasingly frozen as the fog descended and the temperature rapidly dropped on a cold midweek evening. With the score at 1-1 (Staniforth scored), the referee abandoned the game after 54 minutes. At least we had more time in the pub afterwards and a warm glow enveloped us as the prospect that Staniforth and Galvin would save us from a second successive relegation campaign. The innocence of youth.
Galvin and Ian Holmes scored for City in the re-arranged 2-2 draw 2 months later.
City’s last Christmas abandonment was in 2010 when on December 19 City’s game at Luton was eventually called off at 0-0 after 55 minutes due to heavy snow. Snow had been falling all morning, many fans, both home and away included, were surprised that the game even kicked off given the trouble they had experienced getting to the ground for the Saturday midday kick off.
Relations were already tense between the clubs following Luton’s signing of Alex Lawless and relentless pursuit of David McGurk. Luton insisted that they wanted the game to start despite the increasingly heavy snow and worsening weather forecast. City’s thoughts were already on their treacherous journey home. Having kicked off, Luton were able to keep all the gate receipts from a 6,125.
The game was played a month later when Michael Ingham was sent off early in the game, City were 4 down at half time, eventually losing 5-0. Greg Young and Chris Smith shared keeper duties in Ingy’s absence.
So from those 4 games, we’ve fared worse twice and held our position on the other 2 occasions in the re-matches.
Luton was the last of City’s 14 abandoned games, before then our previous weather related abandonment was at Lincoln in 1992, sadly, a team who appear far too frequently in City’s abandonments. Given global warming, maybe weather abandonments are thing of the past.
Shot By Both Sides Did you enjoy the spat between Adam Hinshelwood and Matt Uggla? It sounded like we were shot by both sides, their own versions of this and that, they must be the same, what is legal is just what's real. I'm given to understand we’ll never the full truth but left to steal our understanding.
Given it was a sacking / parting of the ways, it is very unlikely there was any non disclosure agreement in place, can you imagine, the conversation:
Matt: “We’re parting ways with you”
If we’d been a bigger club, we might have made Talksport as were Celtic in the aftermath of Brendan Rodgers’ resignation and the riposte of their Dermot Desmond, their Chief Executive. As someone else said, making City “the Celtic of the south”.
Don’t expect to see the pair in court any time soon. As it is, the truth in City’s case will remain unwritten. Between the pair, there was maybe some unsavoury embellishment on both sides, was Will Davies a good egg or bad egg? Later social media posts seemed to back up the AFC Fylde return coach story trips.
Stories of bullying seem to be an ongoing issue within the club. Whether it is common place in the football dressing room it is hard to say. In any adrenalin fuelled group of 30 young men it would not be unusual to have cliques, different personalities, “banter” and falling outs. Something the leadership group and good characters within the squad should manage.
Whatever, the most important relationship at any club should be between chairman and manager and the Matt / Adam relationship was clearly broken.
Maybe many things should have been left unsaid, the more that is said, the deeper the digging and that is no good for our club.
Matt must be thinking he wormed his way into the heart of the crowd and was shocked to find what was allowed. A football club is possibly unlike any other business. In City’s case, a group of young men who must perform to the best of their ability every few days in a results’ orientated business, unlike the office or building site where the demographics are much more varied, old, young, male, female, different skills and performing quite diverse roles to achieve longer term objectives.
Ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have? At least there is never any boredom at City.
Roll Of Dishonour City’s recent FA Cup game at Barnsley got me thinking that in the 22 league games we have played against them we have achieved just 2 wins, 1967 at Oakwell and way back in 1932 at Bootham Crescent.
Looking at teams we have played at least 20 times in league game and assuming 3 points per win, we have taken just 18.2% (P22 / W2 / D6 / L14) of points against them. When I checked, that is the worst record against any team that we’ve played at least 20 times in league games.
Tommy Spencer, our Scottish centre forward scored the only goal of the game in that Friday night win in front of a 5,213 crowd, whilst Spencer and some of his teammates are believed to be living over 57 years after that win, including Phil Burrows in Greater Manchester, it begs the question, is there any supporter alive who has seen City beat Barnsley.
Next best (should that be worst) is Bristol City at 19.7% (P22 / W2 / D7 / L13).
Whilst I have mixed memories of games against Bristol City, I can claim to have been at both wins over the Bristol Robins when Brian Pollard scored in each of the 1975 and 1983 games. 1983 saw an emphatic 3-0 win as Denis Smith’s first season drew towards a close and 8 months later, 10,827 fans, more than 3 times the attendance at the earlier game saw the game in City’s Division 4 title winning season.
The 1975 win helped to keep City in the Championship, but the following season saw City lose twice to Bristol City by 4-1. The away game saw a Tom Ritchie hat trick as City’s defensive woes were broadcast nationwide on Match Of The Day (anyone else still have nightmares about Peter Creamer?), the return game resulted in a Paul Cheeseley hat trick.
In 3rd place is Reading at 25% (P20 / W3 / D6 / L11).
However, if I was to drop the qualifying criteria to just 10 games, whilst the top 2 would remain the same, Maidstone would creep into 3rd place at 23.8% (P10 / W1 / D4 / L5).
But that’s enough of the dishonour, suffice to say, I’m afraid with City’s chequered history, we have more opposition who have a better head to head record against us than we do against them.
Adam: “OK, pay me up as per my contract”
Matt: “Oh and by the way, sign this NDA”
Adam: “You what?”
Issue #60
Testimonials – The History I was pleased to hear that Paddy McLaughlin has been awarded a testimonial year by City. It is a fitting reward for a long serving and popular City player. In former days, going back to the days of a (football) maximum wage, a testimonial game often allowed a player to buy his first house or to set him up in a post football career. They were “games” and not “years”, back then, the criteria for being granted a testimonial were strict, at one time, 10 years continuous service with a club or a career ending injury.
Until the 1950s, there were occasions when City’s directors awarded a benefit cheque, it was a Football League directive for any player completing 5 consecutive years with a club, City were paying £350 in 1954, the equivalent of about one year's wages. In one case, City paid a benefit cheque to their groundsman.
City have a long history in awarding players (and staff) testimonials. By the 1970s and Barry Swallow, the traditional testimonial game was becoming a testimonial season with the testimonial match being the highlight of a season long series of activities which invariably included dinners, golf days, smaller events and glossy testimonial brochures.
Whilst Bootham Crescent has staged a number of testimonials, City have rarely been invited to provide the opposition for a testimonial game. We did so for Scarborough’s Harry Dunn's (1974) and Shane Bland (Whitby Town) when our July 2024 pre season 2-1 friendly win was actually his testimonial game.
Jack Middlemiss was the beneficiary of City’s first testimonial game when he was presented with a cheque for £111 after a game against Middlesbrough in 1929.
Per World War 2, he ws followed by Tom Fenoughty, Jack Pinder, Stan Fox and Ted Wass. In 1934, ware of City’s financial woes, Fenoughty offered City his benefit cheque to City.
Post WW2, Pinder enjoyed a second benefit (v Huddersfield) and 2 years later, Tommy Ledgard, a former groundsman / handyman, who was suffering from blindness following an illness was granted a benefit match and a year’s pay. He netted receipts of £109 and a £31 collection from a crowd of 2,280 for a friendly with Rotherham Reserves.
2 big names from City’s past enjoyed 1950s testimonial games. A City record crowd of about 11,000 saw City lose to Leeds XI (the legendary Len Shackleton and ex City starlet George Lee guested for them) in Bert Brenen’s testimonial which netted him £750, the maximum permitted at the time. Tom Lockie enjoyed a testimonial a year later.
Percy Andrew’s testimonial game was held in 1957 when City beat an All Stars XI (featuring Bill Shankly and the then current City manager Sam Bartram). Andrew’s benefitted by £695 gate receipts from a 7,000 crowd.
A number of other players received benefit cheques for 5 years’ service, an indication of the transfer system of the era and longevity of players at clubs.
Away from Bootham Crescent, later to be City manager Joe Shaw had a testimonial at Sheffield United and Eric Winstanley had a joint benefit at Barnsley, decades before being appointed City’s youth coach.
In those distant days of the maximum (football) wage, a testimonial was an event to be treasured, an occasion to reap the rewards for years of loyal service and an opportunity to set the wheels in motion for a post football career.
London Calling With so many of City’s games this season in London and the wider south east, it is interesting to look back at the different London venues that City have played at.
Since promotion to the National League we have had over half our division based in the south east. Hopefully, it won’t always be the case.
If we’d been promoted last season, the number of trips to the south east would have been halved. Our only trip to the heart of London would have been the Hive. There would have been return trips to other traditional opponents including Gillingham, Swindon and the “new” Colchester ground as well as the wannabes of those who shall not be named, Bromley and Crawley.
Narrowing it down to London, City’s history of games in London.
But first, I hear you asking where does London start and end. Good question, for the purpose of this article, it is largely based around the tube network and zones 1 – 5, so the likes of Brentford, Wealdstone, Barnet, Dagenham and Sutton are included, excluded are the likes of Watford, AFC Wimbledon’s Kingsmeadow, Ebbsfleet, Bromley and Boreham Wood.
In those days of regionalised football, City's first ever trip to play in London was in 1937 and an FA Cup tie against Clapton Orient in their new Brisbane Road ground (known as Osborne Road at the time), a team we’ve later played in their Orient and Leyton Orient guises.
Our first league trip didn't come until the end of regionalised football in 1958. Until then, we’d never played league matches further south than Walsall.
In the 1958/9 season, we had forays into London, it was straight to hell with trips to Millwall and Crystal Palace in the new Division 4.
Promotion that season opened up a whole new vista in West London, QPR and Brentford. Although our first trip to QPR, it was the 16th different ground our hosts have called home. Incidentally, in former days, Griffin Park was an orchard owned by Fuller’s Brewery whose logo included a griffin.
Whilst existing in the lower divisions it wasn’t until 1972 that we visited another new ground in London, Charlton's, The Valley. 5,378 saw us lose 1-0 in a stadium that had seen much better days and 75,000 attendances.
1974 saw us in Division 2, playing many teams for the first time, surprisingly only one new London ground, first we were live by the river at Fulham's Craven Cottage. A little later in that season, Arsenal hosted City in Round 3 of The FA Cup at Highbury. It has recently come to light that City’s reserve side had visited Highbury a couple of years earlier, more of Jimmy Crangle and that in another issue.
A season later, we visited newly relegated Chelsea and held them to a rather drab 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge in October 1975.
Successive relegations saw us back into the basement. November 1977 saw our first trip to the original Plough Lane, Wimbledon and a 2-1 defeat against a team enjoying their first season in The Football League. That made 10 different London grounds on which City had played on.
It was nearly 16 years later before we visited a new London ground. March 1993, with Alan Little having very recently departed, we won 5-1 at Barnet’s Underhill, largely due to a Paul Barnes hat trick, as both teams strove for promotion. Groovy times were had by all.
Despite the setback on the day, our hosts, in only their second league season, won automatic promotion consigning us to the play offs. I’m sure many of you reading this will have been at Wembley, our 12th London ground and will have happy memories of our extra time and penalties win over Crewe on our first visit to Wembley.
April 1997 saw us visit Millwall and their new ground, The New Den, a Neil Tolson goal gave us a 1-1 draw.
In November 1998, with the early rounds of The FA Cup being de-regionalised, City visited Enfield in Round 1, a first non league ground for City. A top non league side over the previous 30 years, they were already in decline and were forced to sell their ground a year later beginning a nomadic existence. City drew 1-1 and won the replay.
Our relegation to the Conference saw us buy a new road map. In our first season, we made our first visit to Dagenham & Redbridge. Other clubs in the south east included Stevenage, Canvey Island, Woking, Crawley and Gravesend & Northfleet (later Ebbsfleet), but for the purposes of this article, all are considered to be outside London, as are Grays who we first visited a season later.
May 2009 saw us make the first of 5 visits to the new Wembley.
In August 2009, City played Hayes & Yeading for the first time, visiting their Church Road ground. By our 3rd trip to play them, their ground was a Barratt Homes building site and they’d moved outside London to ground share with Woking, a game best remembered for a stunning Jason Walker free kick. Later ground shares with Maidenhead and Beaconsfield followed before they permanently returned to Hayes and a new ground in 2017.
In October 2015, Barnet’s new The Hive became the next new London ground for City, the only new London ground in our 4 season return to The Football League.
I’ve missed one out, West Ham. The only time we’ve played them was March 1999 in the last 16 of the FA Youth Cup. After a 1-1 draw a Bootham Crescent, we lost the replay 5-0 at Upton Park, maybe not too unsurprisingly when you consider The Hammers had Michael Carrick and Joe Cole in their line up. That makes 19.
Promotion to the National League in 2022 saw Wealdstone added to the list. That makes 20 different London grounds we’re played on.
Roll on, first trips to Arsenal’s Emirates, The Olympic Stadium, Spurs' new stadium, Brentford and of course AFC Wimbledon’s return to Wimbledon. A little further down is
Chelsea (if they ever move ground). That said, all in all trips to a new Barnet (or whisper it quietly) Wealdstone ground might come first.
City’s Finances This article has been 10 years in the making, the first draft started “York City have never been a wealthy club with significant financial backers”.
The club had always relied on relatively wealthy local benefactors to run it and to cover any shortfall in finances, in the way of small loans, lots of unpaid work and no doubt the ability to draw upon local services at attractive prices.
That was the case up to Jason McGill.
Before World War 2, York City’s biggest annual profit had been £3,518 in the 1937/8 FA Cup season and the largest ever loss had been reported as £2,051 in 1934. By 1939, in the first 17 years of City’s existence, City had accumulated total nett losses of £5,467, less than £300 a season. Enough for the directors to cover without too much hardship.
Post World War 2 saw a boom in football attendances. They were reflected in City’s accounts which showed a profit in 5 of the first 7 seasons. The accounts were helped by a couple of large transfer sales but the numbers through the turnstiles allowed City to buy the freehold of Bootham Crescent in 1948 for £4,075. The trend continued into the 1950s which saw 2 good cup runs and City report nett current assets of over £22,000.
The end of regionalised football in 1958 and the abolition of the maximum wage in 1961 saw City’s fortunes (football wise and financially) decline.
Even promotion to Division 2 in 1974 saw City post a bumper sized loss of £7,130 in 1975 with total nett liabilities of over £30,000. City’s second season in Division 2 saw a £13,888 profit, largely due to the £30,000 sale of Cliff Calvert to Sheffield United.
As successive relegations bit, City sold off 7 club houses (probably mainly in the Dringhouses and Wiggington areas) for a total of £46,000. Despite that, it took a £54,000 directors' loan and a £96,000 share issue to ensure City’s survival.
Financial melt down was narrowly averted as the decade ended,
The 1980 accounts showed a profit of £30,000, the £120,000 sale of Gordon Staniforth was the redeeming feature. A trend had been established, sell to survive.
Further losses followed until 1984 when Denis Smith’s Division 4 Championship winning season saw City post a £15,000 profit.
A notable element on the accounts to this date was the contribution from fundraising activities. In 1982, the fundraising Development Association contributed almost £100,000, continuing a trend which had dated back many years of the Supporters Club make significant financial contribution to the club.
1985 and 1986 saw the Liverpool cup runs and a combined £46,000 profit. Throughout the 1980s, significant ground developments impacted on the finances. In the early years of the 1980s, the gymnasium and Social Club improvements hit the accounts and towards the end of the decade, essential ground improvements, new turnstiles, the hospitality suites and much improved office facilities were added.
The 1989 loss of £190,692 dwarfed any previous losing City’s accounting history.
The 1990s were a decade of massive swings and roundabouts on the accounting front. Generally, the accounts showed a 6 figure sum. Although some years, it was profit as City benefitted from a strong youth policy and raked in over £5,000,000 from transfer sales. More often it was a loss.
However, as our purse strings were loosened, the wage bill shot up. By 2000, it was £1,636,000, more than double just 5 years earlier. 1999 had seen gate receipts break £500,000 for the first time.
Post Craig, The Supporters’ Trust era saw some more sensible bookkeeping before Jason McGill took complete control, at times it looks like he was banking our very future on our assets.
Along the way, we survived a spell of administration in the Batchelor year and another near miss in the Henderson year.
Since Matt and Julie-Anne Uggla arrived, it seems that our financial constraints have been lifted and money hasn’t been a constraint. Long may that situation last although I suspect that the Football League’s financial governance maybe much stricter than we enjoy in the National League.
Maximum Wage Football’s maximum wage was abolished in January 1961. Thanks are largely due to the PFA’s Chairman Jimmy Hill who galvanised his members into action. At the time, the maximum wage was £20, similar to that of a working man. It equated to under £400 a week in today’s era allowing for inflation. No matter which club you played for, in England, no player could earn more than the maximum wage.
From 1922 to 1946, the maximum footballer’ wage was £8 per week, it was a maximum and many players would not receive the full amount. Often players would also receive slightly reduced wages in the summer months. Immediately pre war, the average working man’s wage was about £3, a miner earned £2 and a secretary would earn £1.25, making football a reasonable living.
In theory, it meant a City player in Division 4 could earn as much as a top flight Division 1 player earned from his club.
There was little financial incentive for a player to move to a bigger club (even if they could, a player’s contract effectively tied him to a club until the club decided his services were no longer required). Given the general lack of mobility amongst the working population and the poorer transport links than today, many players were reluctant to travel away from home for similar money.
Before the abolition of the maximum wage, sporadic attempts had been made by a few top flight players to cash in on their ability by playing in Italy, Spain and Chile. It was reported that Jimmy Greaves was earning a basic 7 times the recently abolished maximum wage when he went to Italy in April 1961 and that is before the big five figure signing on fee was taken into account. He and Denis Law were just 2 of top flight players who soon headed back to the home comforts of Britain.
Even with the abolition of the maximum wage in England, the transfer system was still loaded in favour of the clubs. The contract system of the time meant players were effectively still registered to their clubs until the club decided to release them. Indeed, some players in dispute with their club had their registration held by their club (even after a contract had ended) meaning they could not sign for another club and would draw no wage, the system ended the careers of some players.
Equally, the relative lack of transfers between clubs meant there were few big signing on fees in England.
Perhaps it is not making too big a leap to suggest City’s re-election campaigns of the 1960s (5 re-election campaigns in the 6 seasons between 1963 and 1969) could at least be partly attributed to the abolition of the maximum wage and gradual drift of players towards the clubs that paid better wages.
Compare City’s 1960s record that to our earlier days in Division 3 (North). We had just one bottom four finish in City’s 22 season of regionalised Division 3 football to 1958 when the maximum wage ruled.
Given City’s limited resources, the wages that City could afford were not as good as other clubs thereby restricting City’s ability to recruit.
Equally, in the era of the maximum wage, many players were part time footballers combining football with another career, making a comfortable living.
York provided decent working opportunities and living conditions for many players. For City players, the city’s location provided a pleasant environment for many to live when their football wages were effectively capped.
Older may recall Barry Jackson’s newsagent / sweet shop at the top of Bootham, just about opposite The Bootham Tavern. Teammate Norman Wilkinson played part time for City for 12 seasons until his retirement in 1966, famously starring in our 1955 FA cup run. He combined playing with a career as a cobbler, travelling daily from his north east home to train and then returned home to continue his cobbling. Before them, alongside my dad, Alf Patrick worked as an electrical engineer at Vickers on Haxby Road, his half day Saturday shift ending with a bike ride to Bootham Crescent, his preparation for a Division 3 North game.
Indeed, even in the late 1960s, many City players were able to gain casual work. Tom Lockie, whose long association York City ended after 7 years as manager in1967, lived in the house next to the post office in New Earswick. It was his village links that enabled many City players to earn casual work as painters and decorators and general handyman in the village in the summer months with the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust, who owned all the properties in the village, as the Trust annually progressed with their rolling programme to re-paint and renew its housing stock.
For City, the end of the maximum wage might be considered stage one of our downfall.
Traditionally a club struggling for crowds and revenue, with the maximum wage abolished, City struggled to match the big spenders. In former days it might have been a choice of £10 a week in York or £10 a week in a decaying and grim industrial town, now it was £12 in York or £20 in that decaying and grim industrial town.
Promoted in 1965, the likes of Paul Aimson and Eamon Dunphy were soon gone up the pyramid, City were unable to adequately replace them. 3 consecutive re-election campaigns followed.
It was much the same a decade later. Tom Johnston put together a successful side on a shoestring. After 2 promotions, the side started to show its age and break up. City were unable to replace free transfer signings like Graeme Crawford, Phil Burrows and others with Division 2 standard players on Division 2 wages, 2 relegations followed.
Fast forward another decade, ditto Denis Smith’s side. In Division 4, Keith Walwyn and John MacPhail cost just £4,000. A few seasons later, they were sold for around £50,000. For that (and a tiny bit more), we signed Kevan Smith and Alan Whitehead. Like for like in terms of cost, not quality.
Fast forward another decade and how was Alan Little supposed to replace free transfer signings like Andy McMillan, Wayne Hall, Tony Canham or Jon McCarthy?
Every time, whilst City could recruit cheaply, replacing those players as City rose up the pyramid proved to be a near impossible task in the post maximum wage days. With City’s limited finances and competing against “cash rich” clubs, City regularly struggled to compete.
When the time comes, our current ownership gives hope for the future and that we won’t need to be looking in the bargain basement for an Ollie Pearce replacement.
Top 10 Fees Paid On my long list, this article was named “Top5 Flops”, I was going to consider who have been City’s top 5 failures.
When considering who to include, it quickly morphed into a “Top 10 Fees Paid” and it quickly became apparent that I had more than 5 candidates for the “Top 5 Flops”.
When I look at all the transfer fees paid, I quickly changed the title. A word of warning, many recent transfers, both in and out, have been officially announced as undisclosed fees, so a bit of guesswork and estimation in involved, but I reckon all 10 cost City transfer fee of £80,000 or more.
By common consent, either Dipo Akinyemi or Josh Stones cost City the most in transfer fees. Has either been a success or a flop? No doubt Dipo Akinyemi’s goals during the 2023/4 season were instrumental in saving City from relegation back to NLN, but both his long term City managers struggled to place him at the spearhead of out attack, both citing a lack of a strong first touch. Equally, has John Stones been a success? Again, Hinsh has struggled to fit him into his team. If Ollie Pearce wasn’t around, undoubtedly he would have got fair more games. Back in February, his hat trick against Woking showed his potential, but at the time of writing, can he be considered to be a success? The jury is still out whereas with Dipo, so much more was expected, his first few games, before the first of a series of minor injuries, suggested we’d signed a top class striker, unfortunately, circumstances conspired against him.
Tyler Cordner was believed to have had a six figure release clause which City reportedly matched or bettered. Struggling from day one, he never lived up to his cost, perhaps Aldershot’s system suited him and the move up didn’t. Shorn of all confidence, he struggled and has continued to struggle on loan moves back down south.
Some reports stated that he cost £150,000 and if so, that is about £10,000 more than Adrian Randall cost in late 1995 when he was City’s first ever 6 figure signing. He was classy, but Alan Little couldn’t integrate him into a well established City side. He left 7 months later, City recouping nearly of the money we paid for him. His first boss, Harry Redknapp at Bournemouth has often named him as the most talented player he managed but bemoaned his attitude. That suggests that he was not an Alan Little type of player.
Malachi Fagan-Walcott is another recent big money signing, again an undisclosed fee, some reports state it was 6 figures. Unlike, all of the above, he has put in many stand out performances across his first 12 months with City.
Many of our other big money signings date back to the Alan Little era. They include Rob Matthews, a club record £90,000 signing a few months before Randall, David Rush and Neil Tolson. Little was followed by Neil Thompson who also splashed the cash, including 6 figure fees for Barry Conlon and Colin Alcide.
Little chased Matthews for many months before clinching the deal, but like Randall, struggled to fit him into City’s side and he was gone within 4 months. Again, at least City recovered most of his fee, unlike David Rush who was sacked by City in September 1997 for “serious breaches of club rules”, commonly believed to have been drug related.
So of the 10 top money signings, at least 7 are candidates for the “Top 5 Flops”, possibly Adrian Randall and Rob Matthews are saved from the honour due to the fact that at least financially we didn’t really lose out.
From the 4 of the modern era, at the moment, only MFW can be considered a success, the jury is still out on Josh Stones and opinions will vary on whether Dipo was a success or not.
Whatever, it only proves that money doesn’t always buy success.
Issue #59
City Fanzines – Terrace Talk To Y Front City has a long history of fanzines. This issue (Issue 59) sees “Y Front” move ahead of “Terrace Talk” as City’s most prolific fanzine. So, it seems appropriate to take a look back at the history of City’s fanzines.
Most City supporters would name “Terrace Talk” as City’s first fanzine. Perhaps so, but the official Supporters Club had started to produce their own publications over 30 years earlier.
Whilst not what many would consider to be a fanzine, the Supporters Club produced a facts and figures pamphlet in the 1949, various branch, notably Pocklington, produced annual handbooks and in April 1968, the SC issued “Robins”, a more fanzine style product covering City and wider football, sadly it lasted just one issue. Perhaps the daddy of all their work is the1972 booklet celebrating 50 years of York City.
For many years, until around 2007, the Supporters Club produced a range of fanzine style publications. Many were driven by Ray Wynn, Rob Havercroft and David Quinn. They included a regular review / newsletter in the 1980s which became annual handbooks and “Win, Lose Or Draw” / “For The Record” in the 1990s. Guest contributors included Douglas Craig, Malcolm Huntington, Tom Kelly, Alan Glasby, Barry Parker, Alastair Yeomans, Dave Batters, Monica Hartland, Paul Bowser, Andy Naylor and Steve Mann and Gary Beckett. The Supporters Club were also responsible for “Red”, a Junior Reds’ publication during their mid 1990s hey days and in 1997, a short lived “The York Citizen” which raised funds on behalf Of City’s Youth Development Fund.
"Terrace Talk" is often regarded as the first of the fanzines of the early 1980s phenomenon and spawned hundreds, maybe thousands, of pale imitations across the country, even further afield and across other sports. "In The City" followed, out of the York Nomads Society stable.
Launched in November 1981, the first issue of “Terrace Talk” had a real DIY feel, it consisted of one sheet of A4 paper folded over. It was the work of Frank Ormston, Mick Kettlewell and the York Nomad Society. That first season saw 6 issues. Although in later seasons, the links became TT and YNS became less pronounced, they were still closely allied and TT was able to draw upon a large pool of regular contributors, probably more than any of the subsequent City fanzines.
It was always the hardest hitting of City’s fanzines and in regular conflict with the club. From September 1984, it was banned from being sold on club premises.
Come 1986 and it was featured in the Sounds music paper, when it was referenced as a "magazine" in an article in Sounds headlined "Terrace Talk" which covered the football fanzine culture. The cross over was continued with photos of Ted Chippington (pictured at Bootham Crescent) following features on York bands The Redskins and The Shove.
A regular feature “Pies & Police” drew nationwide acclaim and was copied by many.
One article "Roof The Shippo", was written in response to plans to improve the Main Stand (offices and hospitality) and turnstiles. Complete with the iconic front cover of Princess Diana holding an infant Prince William with an "I'd sell my Grandmother to roof the Shippo" speech bubble coming out of his mouth it lead to the formation of the Roof Appeal.
Sadly, after over 8 years, issue #58 in December 1989 was the last ever issue. By the end, it cost 20p for a well produced 20 or 24 page issue. The bar had been set high.
August 1989 had seen the first issue of “In The City”, it was to run for nearly 4 seasons and saw 11 issues. Starting at 16 pages, the last issue had 28 pages and cost 50p. Authors, the husband and wife team of Dave and Jackie Wells, formerly prominent members of the Terrace Talk team, continued in the vein of TT related features from number of well known supporters of the time (and still today) with particularly good accounts of following City and England away from home. For me, it still reads well today.
February 1991 saw a one off issue of “The Shippo Shout”.
Within a few months of the demise of “In The City”, “new frontiers” hit the streets. The first issue was in November 1992 and it ran for 14 issues until it expired in 1995 when everything seemed to be rosy with City, but it was days before the sale of Jon McCarthy, the start of the “where’s the money gone” era, Manchester United and the turning of Craig from hero to villain. It cost 50p and typically had between 20 and 28 pages. Of all the City fanzines to date, it had a more ”City history” stance than any of its predecessors. It raised over £2,000 for City’s Youth Development Fund. Re-appearing in 2008, there were sporadic issues until 2022 (issue 36), a mix of free downloads and £2 paper copies.
“Are You Watching Johnny Ward?” appeared in 1994, 2 issues and elsewhere I once wrote, “not much content, a lot of white space”, but it was well illustrated. Neither of its authors are known to me.
Late 1996 saw 4 issues of John Catton’s “Oh, What A Shambles”, they followed John’s earlier annual away day guides. Its contributors included Jon Rawnsley, Phil Howden and Alastair Smith.
It must be remembered that all these were in the pre internet era when “official” club news appeared the newspapers and match day programmes. The supporters had no voice until fanzines came along, so fanzines were a means of communications.
Later, “A Chunk Of Yorkie” never hit the streets and in 1999,” No One Calls Us The Minstermen” lasted for just one issue.
City fans had to wait until 2002 when the Andrew Leathley fronted “Ginner’s Left Foot” saw the light of day. It ran for 10 issues until 2005. The main aim was to help keep spirits up during the dark days of Batchelor and Craig, it was laced with lots of humour and raised essential funds for the Supporters' Trust. Andrew’s later works included one issue of “RaBTaT” (Red and Blue Through and Through) and an excellent "Goodbye Bootham Crescent", published under the GLF banner in November 2020, its 56 pages included many personal recollections from City fans and former players.
It wasn’t until April 2016 that "Y Front" was launched with Chris Topping spotted as a celebrity seller. After a slow start, just 8 pre covid issues, it became prolific during covid and now there are 12 issues a year, all year long. Recent issues have seen a more varied range of articles. To mark its 50th issue in January 2025, there was a bumper 60 page issue. It is available at nearly every City home and away game and is supported by a very active social media presence.
2018 saw 2 issues of “The Happy Wanderer“, a glossy production and heavily history orientated.
All of these fanzines offered an independent viewpoint, often holding contrary views to those of the club, but over 40 years after the first one appeared, you will still see many of the people behind the fanzines still on the terraces supporting City. Take a bow Frank, Dave, Chris, Andrew, Michael and all those others who have the well being of City at the forefront of their actions.
New Contracts City are to be applauded for giving Ollie Pearce, Joe Felix and Alex Hunt new contracts. All 3 have been stand out players for City. They will join the likes of the 2025 summer signings, plus MFW and Josh Stones with long term contacts.
Whilst all 3 deals were announced as “multi year", it is not unreasonable to assume they will extend to 2028 (and maybe longer), all possibly with an extra year, exercisable by City.
It is common place, when signing a new contract for it to kick in straight away. The player will receive an immediate pay increase and an assurance of extra length on his contract. The players are rewarded and City lock in the players’ value. Any future suitor will possibly have to offer more, both in terms of a transfer fee and wages.
For Ollie Pearce, there was some summer speculation of interest from both Fleetwood and then Huddersfield, both of those clubs later went out and announced high profile striker signings.
For all 3 is was a well deserved thank you for their efforts over their time with City and came just weeks after Adam Hinshelwood’s departure. All 3 continuing to perform in exactly the same manner for Stuart Maynard, no thought of downing tools when their former mentor was replaced.
Who is next?
With 8 new signings in the summer, it is reasonable to assume they all have multi year contracts, so by my reckoning we have very few first team squad members nearing the end of their contracts. The likes of Callum Howe, Ryan Fallowfield, Harrison Male and Mo Fadera might be the few exceptions.
With such a strong core already contracted for next season, City could play hard ball and exercise caution over if and when they offer any more new deals. Even more so, as we’re a long way from the end of the season and there is no certainty over which division we’ll be in next season.
A few weeks ago, who would have thought that Callum Howe would be considered by many to be the weakest link in a back 3. He, Fallowfield and Fadera might all be considered to be worthy of no more than another year. Male might be the most worthy of a longer extension.
The good news is that most of City’s own bomb squad are likely to be out of contract next summer.
With City’s forward thinking we have a strong and settled squad. Gone are the days of chopping and changing the squad every season, we are now in an era of squad evolution, long may it continue.
A Second Home It started in 2015 with a request by Paul Bowser to York City to do a series of programme articles capturing the history of Bootham Crescent as City’s days at the old stadium drew to a close.
Summer 2015 was the expected start of a 12 month construction period that would see City in their new ground in time for the start of the 2016/7 season.
His initial research soon identified much information that had never previously been made public. Programme articles soon developed into a book.
Little could anyone imagine all the delays. Given judicial reviews, build contract issues, an extended construction, a long drawn out snagging period and covid, York City weren’t in the LNER until early 2021. Then the club’s upcoming centenary, subsequent changes of ownership and Paul’s desire to document what happened after City quit Bootham Crescent all transpired to make setting an end date for the book become a moving target.
After almost four years of researching and writing, the first part of a planned 2 book homage to York City FC and the club's Bootham Crescent ground was published in March 2019. It ran to 281 A4 sized pages format, with over 240 rare images, many in full colour, newspaper cuttings and items of memorabilia including the wonderful cover shot taken in 1934 of the original entrance gates to the club car park.
It covered the period up to 1960 and for context includes details of earlier attempts to set up a club in York and the club’s early Fulfordgate days when supporters’ wives would knit socks for the players.
The surprising residency of baseball in 1937 gets its own chapter, as does the logistics of packing the ground during the cup runs of 1938 and 1955. All the ground changes are captured in rich detail, and provide a fascinating insight of bygone days, and the wider events which impacted on York City’s fortunes.
From ticket pricing to cup-tie allocations, turnstiles to floodlights, dugouts to disciplinary notices, canine pitch invasions to five-minute flags, the glass bridge, finances, contracts, rent levels and leases, crowd disorder, it's all here and so much more. There are many fascinating details that have perhaps never previously come to light.
Paul’s original intention was a 2 part book, but as time progressed, it some became apparent that Book 2 would be a weighty volume, hence the decision to split the second volume into 2 separate books.
Book 2 (published in July 2021), it was slightly bigger at 285 pages and ended with City’s first visit to Wembley in 1993.
Finally, in July 2025, Book 3 was published and ran all the way through to May 2025 in 369 pages at £35.
For Paul, Book 3 was the hardest to write, being the most contemporary, he was keen to be accurate and to ensure many contentious events and people were put into a true and representative light.
In total across the 3 books, the 935 pages far surpassed the 728 pages of the 1995 book “The Sandgrounders, The Complete League History of Southport FC” by Michael Braham and Geoff Wilde, believed to be the biggest ever book detailing one football club’s history.
For Paul, it was the end of a 10 year journey. Given escalating print / paper costs and any perceived reduction in people’s attention spans, will any future club history exceed its size?
The books have something for everyone, no doubt people’s age will influence which is one’s favourite book, whatever, the detail goes to a far deeper depth than many previous works.
Interesting, the move to Bootham Crescent in 1932 took just 3 months from start to finish whilst the departure from Bootham Crescent took nearly 20 years. The very reasons that were cited for the 1932 move of wanting a more accessible city centre site were one of the reasons for the departure nearly 90 years later when the land locked nature of the ground prevented any possible expansion.
For Paul, whose City supporting career covers just over half the time City called Bootham Crescent their home, he can recall when over 11,000 packed into the ground and marvels at how the ground record attendance of 28,123 was achieved in 1938 in the days when health and safety were not a consideration but grounds were probably safer than in later years. He details how the 1932 3 mile move was largely supporter driven, often by horse and cart or wheelbarrow as anything of value was carried across York to Bootham Crescent, the terraces that helped to secure the record attendance being soil and ashes piled high at the back of the ground.
Paul never intended it to be a club history, but given Bootham Crescent was entwined across 90 years of City’s existence, the book does re-tell City’s history, possibly in far greater detail given Paul’s own archives, his unrivalled access to Wilf Meek’s personal papers, he covered City for the Yorkshire Evening Press for nearly 5 decades and was a club director and authored the club's programme for nearly all of that time. Add in Paul’s own painstaking research of newspaper archives, including Boston Spa, Bradford (home of the YEP archive) and Colindale, City’s own director’s minutes’ books, copies of Football League submissions as well as access to fellow football historians included, I doubt if any club history book has been better researched.
Whilst David Batters’ ”A Complete History”, was ground breaking, Paul’s books feel a lot more personal, they contain many never before or rarely seen photos and include programme covers and tickets stubs rather than the “stock” photos which David’s book could draw upon.
Along the way, many historic facts were challenged, it became apparent that City were formed a day earlier than previously thought and long standing mysteries were resolved, the original York City sign that was positioned above the car park entrance was located, rusting away, after 40 years of neglect. Match details could be challenged and anomalies identified.
As someone who did some work to support Paul, it was only with the use of computer technology rather than David’s pen and paper that many issues could be identified.
Equally, the extended end date coincided with the passing of one key figure in City’s departure from Bootham Crescent and Paul was able to reveal the identity of the much maligned person behind 2 large anonymous donations to the York City Supporters Trust.
For many supporters, as with the club, Bootham Crescent was indeed a second home and the books reflect this. They are a worthy edition to the York City bookshelf. As Bowser says, "everyone likes a happy ending", unfortunately, the May 2025 Oldham play off defeat didn’t provide it. Defeat cost City the chance to return to our first home, the Football League.
Read more.
The House Of Stuart As we welcome Stuart Maynard to City, it is time to look back at the Stuarts (and Stewarts) to have played for City.
Pride of place goes to Alan Stewart, the first, and the only one to cost City a fee. £500 from Huddersfield in 1949. A commanding centre half, he was a regular for City, when fit, for most of his 8 years with the club. He missed the whole of the 1952/3 season through injury and in City’s 1955 FA Cup replay, he ended up on the right wing, inventing the role of the heavily bandaged and bloodied centre half over 30 years before Terry Butcher reprised the role in full red and white colour. He announced his retirement at the end of the 1956/7 season, just days short of his 35th birthday having scored just once in 231 games for City. It would have been many more appearances but for his injuries. It was more appearances than all the other 10 Stuarts / Stewarts put together managed for City and one more goal than 6 of them managed between them.
His last season overlapped with the City career of John Stewart, or James as he was nicknamed after the film star of the time, he made his debut on New Year’s Day 1957 and as they say in cricket, he didn’t trouble the scorer again, leaving for Darlington at the end of 1957.
10 years later, Stuart Alderson and Stewart Fellows saw City service during the 1967/8 re-election campaign. Both hailed from the north east. Alderson scored 5 in 20 games from the right wing whilst midfielder Fellows was limited to 2 appearances as a substitute. Unable to save City from re-election, they ended up at Ashington and Kings Lyne respectively.
They were followed by Stuart Walker, a keeper who made 2 appearances as Graeme Crawford’s deputy. I have vague recollections of a moustachioed figure who was badly at fault for the goal that City conceded on his debut. He came from and returned to Tadcaster. However, he made a Wembley appearance in 1986 as Castleford’s physio in the RL Premier Challenge Cup Final. Coming back to football, he was a physio at Aston Villa, Derby and Chester.
Next up was Stewart Ferebee, a young striker. His junior career was spent with Borussia Monchengladbach where his father was a civil servant in Germany. Returning to England, he joined City from Harrogate Railway Institute, failing to score in 13 appearances as City struggled in Division 4. He was released in 1981. He later spent time with Scarborough and returned to League football with Darlington and Halifax (20 games, no goals). Outside the Football League, he was as a regular scorer. My memories of him are as a light framed scrawny youngster.
As Ferebee exited, Stuart Croft arrived. He was strange one. Coming up through the ranks at Hull, he was a regular, usually at levels above City. He joined Portsmouth in March 1981 and moved to City that summer. Made captain by Barry Lyons, he was a regular until November when he decided travelling from his East Yorkshire home every day was too much. He left City (and the professional game) for Bridlington Trinity.
Stuart McKenzie was next up. A YTS product (ask your Dad), he showed promise as a right back as the Denis Smith era came to an end. Unfortunately, injury problems ended his professional career and he retired in 1988. His last City game was the famous "we’re going down and we’re gonna party” win at Brentford in May 1988 after 39 appearances. He went onto play non league football for several years, including gaining a FA Vase winner’s medal at Wembley with Guiseley.
He was followed by 2 more YTS players. As City unravelled under John Batchelor, Stewart Wise, a young centre half got his chance, playing 35 games, that number possibly says more about City’s dire financial situation rather than his ability. He was joined by Bryan Stewart, a left winger who showed some promise. Come 2006, he rejected the offer of a new contract for a career outside professional football. Interestingly, given City’s finances, 2 other players also rejected new contracts that summer, both instead joining Harrogate. For readers of Wikipedia, you need to ignore the claim that he scored 23 goals for City, 3 was nearer the mark.
He must have regretted his decision to leave City as in August 2008 as he was invited back for a trial in a reserve team game. He didn’t regret it for too long as Scunthorpe Reserves beat City by 8-0 and he was never seen again.
Our most recent Stuart was Stuart Elliott. A journeyman Geordie, he was signed in from Northwich in 2007 and spent a season with City managing to get sent off on both his debut (on of 4 City players to do so) and last appearance when alongside Tom Evans and Darren Craddock, he was one of 3 City players to be sent off.
All in all, not a great selection, we just have to hope that Stuart Maynard is the best of the bunch.
Next week’s history lesson, the Norman Conquests.
Morecambe It was good to see Morecambe’s season start late after their protracted takeover was finally competed.
Founded in 1920, for many years Morecambe played in the Lancashire Combination before becoming founder members of the Northern Premier League in 1968 and earning promotion to the Conference in 1995 when Marine’s ground failed to meet regulations. Quickly they established themselves as a leading Conference side after many seasons as a struggling NPL side.
Many of us recall 2007 and their promotion to the Football League, for those too young, it is not worthy of a recount here.
Never a wealthy club, in the Football League, they largely got by on a small budget in the basement division. In recent years, Jim Bentley became a legend as their manager as the club punched above their weight. Their only promotion came in 2021 via the play offs, relegation followed 2 years later.
Off the pitch, in 2010 they moved to their new ground. I vaguely recall it briefly being imaginatively named Christie Park after their original ground before becoming the Globe Arena after a sponsor deal.
For many years, the original Christie Park had become dilapidated. As far back as 1985, the time of another time of financial crisis for the Shrimps, it was in a poor state, their FA Cup replay with City was moved to Manchester City’s Maine Road ground. Just 1,305 fans saw Ricky Sbragia and Keith Walwyn score in City’s 2-0 win. At the time, I recall, many fearing a tough night for City. I didn’t. Having seen the draw, Morecambe defended well but offered absolutely nothing going forward. I didn’t think they could raise their game 3 days later and with the onus on them to attack, they’d struggle. City were 2 up after 8 minutes, it was a comfortable win for City. The win set City on a run of 4 victories over non league sides before coming up against Liverpool in Round 5 for a second successive season.
It wasn’t the first time that City had beaten Morecambe at Maine Road. In 1966 we beat them 1-0 in a second replay at Maine Road. Older readers will remember the days of unlimited replays and for younger readers, we used to have replays when a cup game was level at full time.
In league games, we’ve met 14 times, City have 5 wins and 5 draws. Few players have taken a direct route between Morecambe and City. We sold lanky striker Vadaine Oliver to Morecambe in 2017 and in early 2020, Adam Buxton played 3 games for City on loan from the Shrimps.
In May 2018, Morecambe were sold to Jason Whittingham’s Bond Group Investments. They bought Worcester Warriors a year later. Since September 2022, they have been trying to sell Morecambe, it was around this time that Worcester Warriors went into liquidation. Whittingham and his partner, Colin Goldring, were disqualified as company directors, so were forced to stand down as directors of Morecambe, but were able to maintain their shareholding via Bond and appointed a new set of directors, some would say “puppet directors”.
For Morecambe, prospective suitors came and went.
In March 2023, players' wages were paid late, with funds invested by Sarbjot Johal, who was aiming to take over the club. Tyson Fury, a local resident, is often linked with the club and in 2025, fans hoped for a deal with Panjab Warriors. It appeared on and off with press reports suggesting Whittingham was difficult to deal with, especially when he appeared to pull plug in favour of a deal with Jonny Cato, a face and name apparently unknown to everyone apart from Whittingham.
The late payments of wages in March 2023 resulted in a suspended 3 point deduction. It was activated in April 2024 and Whittingham was fined £10,000. In December 2024, Morecambe received a suspended 2 point deduction for 5 failures to report non payment of monies owed to HMRC.
Wages again went unpaid at times during the first half of 2025. The 2024/5 season ended with relegation from Division 2.
Given the precarious finances, summer 2023 had seen all 14 out of contract players released. A year later, 16 players departed leaving just 5 first team squad players, it was late in July 2024 before any new signings were announced after talks with 4 potential buyers, with one deal reaching "an advanced stage", a transfer embargo was lifted and Morecambe signed 15 players. It seemed like the Football League were bending over backwards to save the club.
Come summer 2025, just 9 players were retained. By the time Morecambe ceased all football operations on July 30, the majority had left, terminating their contracts for non-payment of wages and the National League had suspended Morecambe and postponed their first 3 games of the season.
Under EFL regulations, no ownership rules had been broken. The new owners were deemed “fit and proper” in 2018 and there is no requirement for them to re-confirm their eligibility. Reading was a little different, Dai Yongge committed a criminal offence and that is how the EFL were able to force him to sell his interest in Reading. Being disqualified as a company director isn’t a criminal offence.
Morecambe's woes continued as the landmark Football Governance Bill received Royal Assent in July 2025 establishing a regulator to oversee the men's game in England's top five divisions.
The Act grants greater powers to a body that is independent from government and football authorities, and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the bill would make a difference to clubs like Morecambe and "can't come soon enough".
It remains to be seen how the Act is implemented and how effective it will be. The spin suggests that it will make a significant difference because the regulator will have a much tougher owners and directors' test and will also be able to compel owners to sell up if the club is placed at risk of harm.
Will the ‘fit and proper’ test for an owner be fit and proper?
There has been much talk about the requirements for chairman to re-certify as fit and proper on a regular basis (annually or every 3 years) and / or to place a bond to cover a club’s projected losses.
The first is difficult to implement if a chairman hasn’t committed a criminal offence. The second asks the questions of how much, how often and what for how long. That said, that is effectively what happens now as chairman cover the losses at the end of the year, usually via loans, many which are eventually written off.
Equally with bonds, who puts the money up? In City’s case, we have the YCST owning 25% of the shares and providing 2 directors. Would the YCST or those 2 directors have to make a contribution to the bond? In another way, the bond is only providing funds up front rather than covering losses at the end of the season.
Football regulations mean the EFL / PL consist of 72 / 20 clubs, it is the clubs, not the chairman and directors who are subject to sanction.
Clubs are punished for their owner’s failings and the fans suffer.
Whilst Morecambe’s protracted takeover was finally completed, they celebrated their “opening day” with a win. Since, they’ve stayed largely on the sports pages whilst struggling to build on that win.
Whilst Morecambe have never been considered to be one of City’s traditional foes, everyone should be happy that another little club has overcome rogue owners and lives to fight for another day. Let’s hope City can overcome some of that fight when Morecambe visit the LNER on November 15.
Issue #58
Hinsh After a disappointing end to the 2024/5 season, unsettled summer and slow start to the 2025/6 season, Adam Hinshelwood was sacked ("parted company" in official parlance) on August 28, 2025 after going unbeaten in the opening 4 games of the season.
His last game was a drab 1-1 draw at Woking who previously had had been pointless and goalless in the season. Post match, Hinshelwood became embroiled in a heated discussion with a fan when City's team applauded the travelling supporters. For a man with high principles, a man who always wore his heart on his sleeve, perhaps that fan was the final straw. In his post match interview, he appeared upset that his players appeared not to be listening to his instructions.
Co-chairs Matt and Julie-Anne Uggla said, “We would like to thank Adam for everything he has done for the club since his arrival early last year. We wish him nothing but the very best for the future. We look forward to announcing the new manager in due course for this next chapter for the club.”
Some felt it had been coming since the end of the 2024/5 season whilst to many it was a surprise.
City had started the new season slowly, one win in an unbeaten 4 game opening to the season, but generally, the team’s play lacked the sparkle of the previous season, an influx of ”solid professionals” adding a new backbone to the side but the team did not click.
Trouble had been brewing since the Oldham play off defeat. Matt Uggla’s interview suggested Hinsh’s best side was unclear and was followed by, Hinsh’s rumoured long dalliance with the vacant managerial post at Notts County and the slow start to the new season all added to the long running saga of Hinsh’s new unsigned contract. One knowledgeable source suggested that Hinsh was offered a new deal at the start of 2025 and on at least 3 times he told the club he was ready to sign, then changed his mind, most recently around the start of this season.
Adam Hinshelwood always came across as a thoroughly likeable man, a man of the people with no airs and graces, he apparently shunned an offer of a media training whilst with City, if so, that might have counted against him when “bigger” clubs were sniffing around. His personality wasn’t that of a typical manager, maybe he could have been more circumspect in some of his interviews immediately post match. Throughout the 2024/5 season, he was regularly named (with a host of others) in the betting market for many managerial vacancies.
His style of play often pleased many fans, playing football on the front foot, taking the game to the opposition and often naming 5 attack minded players on the bench, that would allow City plenty of options to attack a weary defence with fresh and effective legs late in a game.
For all of Hinsh’s strengths, at times, he was out thought by tactically more astute managers.
Sometimes, cries of “gerrit forward” could be heard, Hinsh’s style involved playing from the back, drawing opposition on and then springing the trap, exploiting gaps. A few teams found a way to successfully combat it, others, Barnet and Oldham included, just used big and muscular players to overrun a slighter City side.
The summer 2025 signings were received with near universal acclaim, at least until the season started. Ash Palmer lasted one game before lack of pace at the back saw Hinsh learn his lesson and move MFW back into the centre and Joe Felix to right back. We never got to see whether Hinsh had learned the lesson of setting up in far too adventurous formation for some tough away games.
Equally, we’ll never know what happened to his bench. This season, he used only 3 substitutes in every game, 2 fewer than in most games last season and , whether with was a more cautious approach with 3 (not one) defenders on the bench, we’ll never know why.
In some ways, perhaps his biggest failing was with young players. On his arrival, a strong advocate of promoting youth players, he struggled to integrate any into the first team. He offered first professional contracts to 2 scholars in summer 2024, both had left the club by Christmas and during the 2024/5 season, only one academy player, George Grumley got any first team game time, that was just 3 minutes. His younger signings included Leone Gravata who was consigned to oblivion after his debut whilst Mo Fadera showed glimpses of promise. None of his young loan signings can be said to have progressed at City. Hs desire to promote youth seemed short lived, perhaps his realisation that City had struggled to promote youth players for more than 20 years.
Hinsh will always be fondly remembered for the 2024/5 season, exhilarating football that resulted in 96 points and 95 league goals, both only surpassed during the 1983/4 season. Before that, he brought the club together as we reached National League safety in his first 2 months.
Whatever, it meant 2 successive City managers from the south, both departed, presumably in the case of Hinsh, to return south and to newly expected first grand child.
Fanzines – The Production Originally, fanzines were non professional, authors unpaid and were non official produced by fans.
Some very early fanzines, especially of the punk genre, were hand written or stencilled. One copy would often pass through many pairs of hands.
Office photo copies were introduced towards the end of the 1970s, they were a boon for the fanzine editor. It was often a case of how much photocopying you could do without drawing attention to yourself. Then, it was a production line process to sort the pages into order and manually staple them together.
Early fanzines were mainly independent of the club with which they were associated, indeed one definition of fanzine might include being banned by the club.
Throughout most of its life, Terrace Talk was banned from sale within Bootham Crescent. In the days of new frontiers, (tag line “all profits to City’s Youth Development Fund”), no ban existed, although in the latter days, the jobsworth stewards were watching carefully to ensure we never took a step beyond the main gates into the car park.
The very first football fanzines were club based, although shortly afterwards, When Saturday Comes and Off The Ball, which were A4 sized affairs, spread their tentacles across the nation. OFT’s Adrian Goldberg (now often seen on BBC TV) consulted Frank Ormston and Terrace Talk to learn some of the does and don’ts of fanzine publication. Several other fanzine editors contacted Frank and Terrace Talk for advice from as far away as Swansea and London.
By the end of the 1980s, there were around 200 different fanzines in existence, most Football League clubs were represented plus various non league clubs and a few rugby clubs as well.
Fanzine editors would often swap issues and friendships were formed. Terrace Talk and Leyton Orientear were particularly close, the fanzines would raise football sides and play a game on the morning of the game, drink together before and after the game. Club barriers were broken down and a better understanding of rival clubs was gained. This was at a time when hooliganism was rife. Thatcher and her cronies were intent on introducing a membership scheme across the 92.
Some might say that fanzines and the Football Supporters’ Association were starting points for the gentrification of football.
Over the past 40 years, when a club has been in trouble, fanzines have often mobilised action. When City were in financial trouble, fanzine culture rallied behind City.
Whilst fanzines concentrated on football, they also covered other subject, mainly music and popular / youth culture. Famously, Terrace Talk got a lot of nationwide publicity for its “Pies and Police” ratings.
Without naming every fanzine, Bradford City’s City Gent and Notts County The Pie were particularly well received as was The End, largely authored by Pete Hooton of The Farm, perhaps its stance was culture first and football second. Another favourite of mine was Hit The Bar, the work of a handful of Blackpool Borough rugby league fans.
As a rule of thumb, the smaller the club, the better the fanzine. I’m sure Y Front would agree with that.
Unfortunately, the golden age of the fanzine is now well behind us.
Nowadays, some fanzines are now very professionally produced publications (sometimes known as "prozines") and available on the high street. Others went down the internet (“e-zine”) route and some retain their “against modern football” stance when it comes to production.
Some of the original authors have progressed into paid journalism and authorship whilst others have gone down the broadcast channels (including Fan TV) and podcast routes.
Maybe that explains why the quality of football writing in the national media has risen exponentially over the last 40 years.
Players Who Played For Darlington & City In 2022, in relation to poser in When Saturday Comes, I replied with details of the players who played for both for City and Darlington. The original WSC correspondent noted 46 players had played for both Nottingham Forest and Derby County since 1970. He asked was that a record?
Challenge accepted. I quickly came up with a list of 81 players who’ve played for York City and Darlington in the same period. They include Marco Gabbiadini at the end of his career and David Stockdale who played for both clubs at the start of his career.
Pride of place, if it is indeed an honour, went to Gary Himsworth, a glutton for punishment, who had 2 separate spells with both clubs and managed a spell with Scarborough in between.
The majority of those players took a direct route between the clubs. In the early days, it was a one way road, indeed in the late 1970s, Darlington regularly fielded 5 ex City players in their line up, locally they were nicknamed “York City Reserves” . In recent years it has been a much more 2 way road trodden by many largely nondescript players.
Since the original research, the number has increased, both due to more research and later players joining the list. In April 2025, at least 117 players have played for both clubs, the list is maintained on the York City South web site, see the City Players, Scorers and £10.9m transfer fees and counting link and the “Darlo” column towards the extreme right.
One of the more recent additions to the list is Scott Barrow, who joined Darlington, initially on loan in January 2024, and was voted their 2024/5 player of the season.
Cedric Main, his teammate at City and Darlo holds a unique place in City’s history. He is the only player to join City on a free transfer, play no games but leave for a fee.
Going through the list, you could name a fairly decent City XI, although with most City representative sides, there is a dearth of central midfield candidates. David Stockdale, Michael Ingham, Chris Evans, Steve Senior, John Stone, John Mackin, David McGurk, Steve Tutill, Ricky Sbragia, Scott Barrow, David Ferguson, Ben Purkiss, Barry Lyons, Nathan Thomas, Adrian Moke, Dennis Wann, Marco Gabbiadini, Lee Nogan, Peter Duffield, Jimmy Seal and Chris Jones might be amongst the 23 man squad.
Off the pitch, a number of management and coaching staff have associations with both clubs. 3 managers have managed both clubs.
The first was Dick Duckworth who managed both clubs in the 1950s after playing for City Pre WW2. His last game as City manager was against Stockport in October 1952, 3 days after he had been announced as Stockport’s new manager, it was a win win game for him and a home win for City. He was followed by Martin Gray (incidentally, he is one of those who have their name suffixed with “@(footballer)” in wikipedia for the avoidance of any doubt of his profession) and Steve Watson.
Other coaching staff of note with City and Darlington connections include Billy Horner, one of Tom Johnston’s City coaches who I’ve always credited a getting City super fit, Harry Dunn and Tony McMahon.
In May 2008, Steve McClaren (an ex City schoolboy) had a brief spell coaching at then League Two side Darlington when assisting his former Derby County and Oxford United teammate Dave Penney.
Personally, I yearn for a return to the years where the York – Darlington road returns to a one way route.
Wise Owls Don’t Give A Hoot Sheffield Wednesday’s financial woes are the most high profile of those affecting several Championship sides.
Owned by Dejphon Chansiri since 2015, when he bought the club for £37.5m from Milan Mandaric, they have suffered cash flow issues for some time.
Mandaric owned clubs in the USA, Belgium and France before alighting on Portsmouth and Leicester. In England, both clubs achieved on pitch success but off the pitch, some of his dealings were questionable. He acquired Sheffield Wednesday in 2010. Apart from the 3 English clubs all playing in blue, it is difficult to know where his true allegiances really rested.
On his arrival in 2015, Chansiri said promotion to the Premier League within 2 years was his aim. 10 years later, their journey is still not at an end and has taken a detour via Division 1.
A 12 points deduction in 2018 for breaching PSR rules didn’t help. He followed the example set by others of selling the ground to himself, currently the club pay him £2,575m a year in rent.
Many of us will recall when City’s ground was sold to a company controlled by the chairman. Many called foul but the authorities said no rules had been breached and waved play on. It was a warning of what clubs could do to circumvent the rules. Similar transactions are being increasingly used, clubs selling asset to themselves or associate parties, seemingly to circumvent rules.
Sheffield Wednesday’s financial woes came into focus this year. March’s wage bill was paid late, at the time, Chansiri blamed an earthquake in Thailand meaning he couldn’t release funds from Bangkok. By the end of July, wages had been delayed in 4 months out of 5.
Wanting out, some reports stated that Chansiri had put over £100m into the club and was seeking to sell at a price to cover his input, he is unwilling to put further monies into the club.
Before Wednesday, in recent years, other Championship clubs had suffered from similar issues. Dai Yongge at Reading and Mel Morris at Derby spring to mind. I might consider one to be new school and one to be old school, but the common factor was that they gambled, seeing promotion to the Premier League as an end to their financial troubles.
Their gambles failed, the owners lost interest and the supporters were the ones who were left to worry about their club’ existence.
Historically regulation has focused on owners being “fit and proper” on appointment, there has never been a focus on tomorrow. The authorities are almost powerless to get rid of an owner.
With most clubs running at a loss, financial accounts include a statement from the auditors along the line of despite losing money, they see the club as a going concern. In the latest Wednesday accounts, the debt owed to Chansiri is acknowledged with the auditors noting “the director’s use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate”.
Only recently have the authorities taken limited steps to reduce the ability to cover debts.
With the Football Regulator Bill receiving royal assent in July, it remains to be seen what will happen. Along the way, the Premier League has tried to block it.
It remains to be seen how the regulator will work and how much power it will truly hold.
There is talk is of chairman and directors having to prove there are fit and proper on a regular basis, rather than just at the time of appointment and also to place a bond to cover expected outgoings. In some ways, that is only covering upfront what they now cover when the accounts are published.
Until proper regulation happens, clubs will continue to live beyond their means, hoping for promotion to solve all their problems.
(City) Shorts City Shirts / A Team Of 11 Ollie Pearces I’m slightly disappointed by the rather bland nature and colours of this season’s kit. Red, blue and black, admittedly, the runes are a talking point, but I don’t see the unusual colour or design feature. I do rather like the new dracula / goth inspired Whitby shirt. I’ve often wondered whether City could do similiar? How about an image of, say Keith Walwyn on the shirt, even better, an image of Ollie Pearce, enough to put the frighteners on the opposition when they see 12 Ollie Pearce’s lining up against them.
Barnet Late July saw the Barnet Council issue a refusal notice for Barnet FC’s plans to return to Underhill.
Ben Brookes Not sure how long I’ll be able to watch his youtube videos. He said he had no footage of Marine to include. Perhaps with that weekend being City’s pre-season weekend away, I’d have been keen to see the antics some of the players got up much later that evening, at most clubs, far more interesting than match footage.
Wealdstone Their search for a new ground rumbles on. In May 2025, they signed a 3 year exclusivity contract with Hillingdon Council to explore sites, one and 2 stops further along the tube line than their current ground.
Squad At the time of writing (a week before the Sutton game), with have 25 contracted players at the club with another 6 out on loan. Not sure what an ideal squad size is, but I’d suggest it is not much less. With an 18 man match day squad, that allows a little room for injury and maybe a couple more out on loan. Cut it too fine and you’re leaving yourself short and expecting players to play too much. Given Hinsh’s success with loanees, not much, I wouldn’t want to have to bolster the squad with too many young loanees.
Conor McAleny or Lewis Richardson? Discuss.
(City) Shorts (2) Anyone But United Are Newcastle taking over that mantle from Manchester. Seems link none of their top summer transfer targets wanted to play for them, even Alexander Isak joined the ABU club
City Shirts (1) Michael Ingham wore the number 24 jersey in a City record 8 consecutive seasons (2008 – 16).
PSR Seems like Newcastle, despite their unlimited wealth are struggling to spend it, some blame PSR, others ask who wants to go to Newcastle. If their owners were serious, perhaps they would do what many owners do to improve their PSR position, build a new ground or extend St James Park. For all the goings on at Old Trafford, Sir Jim quickly identified the need to increase revenue, a 100,000 ground was mooted, a site was identified and talks with central and local government officials to smooth the way towards compulsory purchase orders and government funding were held. Meanwhile, nearly 4 years into their tenure, hardly a word out of the Saudis on the subject. Perhaps, after the World Club Championship success with Al Hilal reaching the quarter finals, they will put their money into that club to fulfil their aim of world class football.
City Shirts (2) Chris Smith has the biggest drop in shirt numbers across successive seasons (30 (2010/1) to 4 (2011/2)).
Douglas Craig When I run short of ideas, Michael sends me a list of potential topics. I was quite proud of the balanced piece I did on Jason McGill, but when he suggested Douglas Crag, I immediately dismissed it, I don’t think I could find a good word to say about him. The idea was binned alongside some of Michael’s other ideas.
City Shirts (3) Mark Kitching has the biggest drop in shirt numbers (34 (2015/6) to 3 (2025/6)) across 2 consecutive seasons of his City career.
Issue #57
We Go Again Last season, after a strong second place finish, City find themselves favourites for the title this time around.
What could go wrong? Quite a lot, especially considering from the 2023/4 plav off teams, only 2 teams (Barnet & FC Halifax) achieved a 2024/5 top seven finish. Good (or bad) summer recruitment can mean a lot. Indeed, how many City supporters predicted 96 points for City last season? Very few, if any, I suspect.
We Go Again It is not uncommon for teams who go close one season to struggle in the following season, a hangover from a disappointing finish to the previous season, and in the case of many National League sides, they peaked once, lost star players and struggled. Teams like Solihull Moors, Altrincham and Aldershot might be considered to be such clubs.
The Lure of the Football League (1) Whilst we might wonder why any player would want to leave City, for players, any club is just a staging post on their footballing journey. The lure of a Football League career and money are ever present temptations. Whilst rumours linked Ollie Pearce to Huddersfield and Fleetwood, no doubt other City players are also coveted by Football League clubs. A recent report suggested that the average weekly wage in League One is £8,400 per week, that’s tempting, very tempting. I’ll be happy when the transfer window is shut and our squad is intact.
The Lure of the Football League (2) Unfortunately no transfer window exists for managers.
THE LNER Lure. Aka The York Factor Like it or not, many other clubs will consider City to be a big club. For many opponents, a game at the LNER, to many, a big and modern stadium when compared to some grounds at our level, is the highlight of their season. Even if not awestruck by the LNER, many lesser clubs will come with one aim, that is to frustrate (by whatever means necessary) to stop City from scoring. No doubt at the same time raising their game. It has been a common theme of the last 21 years ever since we found ourselves outside the Football League. It is down to City to overcome such teams and tactics and build a formidable home record.
Injuries Remarkably we were relatively injury free last season, no major injury crisis, no real long term injuries. Left back was problematic but otherwise our key players were all nearly ever present, Male, Felix, Howe, MFW and Pearce included. Would we cope if 2 of those were out for 6 months?
The Owners The Uggla / Ford partnership works well, all seemingly happy with our direction of travel. What might happen if one wanted out, plenty of clubs have run into a financial crisis when the funds provider has thrown a wobbly.
SCMP (Salary Cap / Squad Cost Management Protocol). A Football League consideration for several seasons is now coming to the National League. The NL sell it as raising standards and improving financial governance to address a concern of FL clubs who argue there is no cost control in the NL. It remains to be seen how it is implemented, a new twist in the FL is that clubs have to doubly cover losses over the SCMP limit from this season. To date, SCMP has not impinged on many clubs, so it could be argued it is a toothless regulation, even if owners seem happy to stump up to over the losses.
Southend They were the surprise late arrivals in the play offs. They started the last season as one of the title favourites but due to a summer 2024 takeover, they were weeks, maybe as much as 2 months behind other clubs when the season kicked off. They had a slow start to the season and suffered a 3-0 defeat at the LNER just before Christmas in a game that City largely dominated. They came good in the new year, sneaked into the play offs and 2 away play off wins saw their season finish at Wembley in June. They’ll fancy themselves for the title this season.
Dark Horses Who will surprise everyone following a good summer’s recruitment? Personally, I’m not seeing anyone, indeed, if pushed, I could even argue it is City that have had the best summer recruitment in the division by adding plenty experience and proven quality to an already strong squad.
Thunderball We saw how Barnet and Oldham got the better of us last season. Hopefully, the summer recruitment has seen us sign some big warriors to go with our little warriors, so hopefully we won’t lose out again due to a lack of physicality.
Squad Dynamics Undoubtedly the 2024/5 squad had a strong bond between all the players. Many contributed that to the team’s success. Will such a spirit continue to flourish? Ever club has a revolving player door, this summer out went Lenny, I lost count of the number of times his positive impact on the rest of the group was noted whilst incoming are a number of players, including the Chesterfield duo and Hiram Boateng who are stepping down from the Football League. I trust City have done their due diligence on the incomers and we haven’t signed any big time Charlies.
For most of last season, everything went right, despite a wobble or 2 along the way, we exceeded all expectations. Let’s hope we can say the same again come April 2026.
(City) Shorts 8 Second Rule Great to see the new 8 second rule get embedded in at the Women’s Euros. Guess what, keepers released the ball within 8 seconds and no one complained. How long before a Premier League prima donna says it is not right claiming an increase in effective ball in play time.
Pain Threshold Whilst I’m talking about the Women’s Euros, do women have a higher pain threshold than men? Only on very few occasions did we see a player prone or rolling around on the ground waiting for the referee (or the teams) to stop play whilst the player to get up unaided.
Alex Newby Welcome to the first footballing twin to play for City since David McNiven in the 2000/1 season. Then, his twin Scott was a seasoned defender who had the better career. Let’s hope that Alex’s career exceeds that of his twin, Elliot who is at Barrow.
Clean Sheets. In City’s entire history, only 12 keepers have kept more league clean sheets in their City careers than Harrison Male did in his first season. With 19 clean sheets, it is not unreasonable to expect him to overtake at last 3 and maybe as many as 5 more keepers during the 2025/6 season.
Tyrese Sinclair He set a City club record last season. In the first season of 5 substitutes at City’s level (and Hinsh’s attacking philosophy), he was subbed off a record 33 times in a season.
The Next Record? Surely Mark Kitching will set a club record for the longest gap between first and second City appearances, it is over 9 and a half years since his City debut in the infamous 1-5 defeat to Accrington in November 2015, his only appearance in a one month loan spell.
Fanzines – The History Rather surprisingly, fanzines can be dated back to the end of the nineteenth century. USA sources cite those as being based around local literary clubs and societies before spreading their net to cover different genres, science fiction is often cited as people reached out to connect with like minded individuals.
Although given the technology available at the time, they will have been very small print runs and limited circulation.
It was the 1970s when fanzines took hold in England, punk rock being the main driver. In 1976, Sniffin’ Glue was the most prominent, founded by Mark Perry of the band Alternative TV. Mark Perry released Alternative TV’s first single as a flexi disc giveaway in Sniffin’ Glue. Others followed, a cheap way to get your records distributed.
In its early days, punk rock struggled to get much media coverage, the punk fanzines, many written by band members with limited and local circulation, gave vital publicity to bands or musical genres, local gig guides with record / gig reviews included.
Football fanzines tend to come and go, various publications jostle to claim they were the original and depending how you categorise them, there might be more than might one who have that claim to fame.
Earlier, published between 1972 and 1976, Foul had a cult following, the Private Eye of its time. Scour the second hand bookshops today and you might find a glossy A4 Best Of Foul.
Later, a fission in the Meadowbank Thistle’s supporters club saw the older members set up their own supporters club, called The Brake Club, after the old brake van in which they held their early meetings. In 1978 they began to produce their own fanzine, mixing music, humour and lifestyle with football. Originally named Cheers, it morphed into AWOL. It is generally acknowledged to be the first club fanzine of the modern era.
Down south, City’s Terrace Talk, first published in November 1981 and Wanderers Worldwide (Bolton Wanderers) were the standard bearers. Dozens, even hundreds of different publications followed, almost everyone had a one team focus. Some were short lived, others were more enduring. Terrance Talk produced 58 issues before disappearing at the end of 1989.
In London, the Sportspages bookshop on Charing Cross Road provide a focal point, its falls covered by piles of around 100 different fanzines. When Saturday Comes and the fledgling Football Supporters Association also provided focus points for supporters.
For City, Terrace Talk came about when there was virtually no “independent” voice for supporters, the official Supporters Club being very much “inside the club”.
One of the earlier drivers was the club’s own travel club, both the high prices and frequency of late cancellations due to lack of demand and throughout the decade, Terrace Talk ran many campaigns aimed at keeping the club honest and airing the genuine concerns of many supporters.
Elsewhere, launched in 1984, the longest running current fanzine is The City Gent produced by Bradford City supporters.
The mid to late 1980s were the golden era of the fanzine, pre internet, they provided fans a means to communicate with each other and to provide an alternate fan based view in an era when the “proper press” was very much in the pockets of the clubs, a mouthpiece for the clubs.
For City, Malcolm Huntington of the Yorkshire Evening Press was a regular on the team bus to away games, once being briefly banned from the bus when he offered mild criticism in the paper.
Fanzines allowed rival supporters to unite at a time when football had been dragged down by hooliganism with the Thatcher government wanting to implement a football membership scheme.
As the 1990s arrived, the era of the fanzine was in decline. The home produced (often with the help of the office photocopier) fanzine, complete with letraset kit, cut up newspaper headline letters and glue stick was coming to an end.
In its place, we had a reducing number of more professionally produced fanzines with over the years, others shifting to become internet based, podcasts or fan TV channels.
Footnote: WSC #401 noted Arsenal’s London Supporters Club’s Gunflash (which dates back to 1950 with a season off in 1985/6) and Hit The Bar (Carlisle United’s London Supporters Club London Branch publication, with a continuous print run from 1975 (issue #312 is due in July 2020)) as being older, some purists might argue with their Supporters Club origins that they’re not “proper fanzines”, but with such long histories, they more than merit a mention.
The Rise Of The Debutant It is interesting to look at City’s debutants. Lewis Richardson and Junior Luamba recently became the 1249th and 1250th players to play for City.
Formed in 1922, all the way through to 2003, 800 players made their City debut. That is about 10 debutants per season. Since then, the rate of debutants has doubled, it is now about 100 debutants every 5 years, about 20 a season. This season, a relatively successful season has seen 18 debutants.
Whilst not all were debutants, in the calendar year of 2016, City used a 63 different players, but it does help to illustrate the rapid turnover of players as new managers, first Jackie McNamara and then Gary Mills fought unsuccessfully to avoid successive relegation campaigns.
Heritage # Year Player 1 1922 Bernard Acklam 100 1926 Dicky Merritt 200 1934 Arthur Turner 100 1926 Dicky Merritt 200 1934 Arthur Turner 300 1949 Jack Price 400 1961 Tommy Heron 500 1972 Mike De Placido 600 1984 Hugh Atkinson 700 1995 Andy Warrington 800 2003 David Stockdale 900 2008 Leo Fortune-West 1000 2013 Ryan Bowman 1100 2017 Hamza Bencherif 1200 2023 Nathan Thomas Increased substitutions, poor results and a succession of short lived managers have all contributed to the ever increasing number of debutants. Substitutes were first introduced 1965, initially one named and one used, but only for injury reasons. Over the years, the number substitutes allowed has gradually increased. From August 2024, City could name 7 substitutes and use 5 in league games.
Last season, loanee Sam Fishburn wore the number 40 shirt, the highest ever shirt number worn by a City player.
Meanwhile, on 3 occasions has one shirt number been worn by as many as 4 players in the same season. Shirt number 24 was given to 4 different players twice in a single season, each wearer having left the club before it was re-allocated, that was during the 2000/1 season and against during the 2016/7 season. Last season (2023/4), City’s number 19 shirt was worn by 4 different players (Dan Pybus, Aiden Marsh, Luke Daley and Billy Chadwick).
About the only commonality between those 3 seasons was the lack of on field success.
I for one welcome the return of fewer debutants, it invariably means a settled and successful side.
Issue #56
Football Finances
March saw a raft of clubs filing their annual financial accounts. Very few made a profit, many made big losses.
In March 2025, City’s accounts for the 12 months to June 30, 2024 (the first Uggla season that ended with the arrival of
Hinsh and a narrow escape from relegation) saw City announce a modest loss of £235,431 (calculated as the difference between the current “profit and loss reserve“ and the figure for a year earlier). That is nearly £5,000 lost in every single week of the year.
In the 2 previous years, City reported a gross profit of £1,121,159 (2022/3) and £535,622 (2021/2).
Those are the hard facts, but given the size of City and many other clubs, they can file accounts with contain very limited detail. So much of the following is pure speculation.
394 Sports, the Ugglas holding company reported a loss of £2,154,555, again accounts don't allow any further breakdown, but it can possibly be assumed to cover some of City’s expenditure.
The most recent (2023/4) City accounts did not even include income or expenditure statements. A year earlier (2022/3), turnover had been stated as £3,846,725.
How was that number derived? For income, think gate income, commercial / sponsorship income and broadcast / prize money as the 3 main sources. If, and it is a big if, City had sold 2,500 season tickets at £300 each, that is £622,500 after VAT is deducted. 3,000 sales on each match day would generate around £1.3m. In total, less than £2m. I said, if, and these numbers assume all tickets are full price paying adults, take away concessions and all sorts of other deductions and City might struggle to net £1.5m in gate receipts. Other income will include commercial / sponsorship income. When I look in City’s commercial brochure, add in broadcast / prize money, I struggle to see how City might breach £2m in income.
For 2023/4, I don’t see any material differences in expenditure or income from a season earlier (the Henderson year). The wage bill might have increased a bit, gate money will be a bit higher and prize money / broadcast income will be up, say £100,000, given City reaching Round 2 of the FA Cup and the Wigan game being on BBC TV.
On the debit side, by far the biggest expense will be wages. Add in 6 figure numbers for each of rent, stewarding, away match travel and the pennies soon become millions.
If as rumoured one player was on £4,000 a week, that’s well over £200,000 as an annual cost. I repeat, I’m afraid it is all speculation given the level of detail shown in the accounts.
Any shortfall is made up by generous owners (or selling assets). Maybe the 394 Sports losses bridge the gap between income and expenditure.
The most recent accounts show a loss which is far less than many similar clubs. Certainly sources, much more informed than myself, have suggested City have incurred record losses, such numbers are not visible in the published accounts.
In Southend’s 2023/4 accounts, they reported a £2.65m loss, down by £100,000 on the previous 12 months, whilst the club's annual turnover fell from £2.93m in 2023 to £2.52m. Many might consider Southend to be a club of a similar size (and situation) to City so it is interesting to see their financial numbers. Mouth watering losses but not unknown amongst non league clubs where other losses included Oldham Athletic (£3.2m), Forest Green Rovers (£3.2m), Yeovil Town (£2.8m) and Hampton & Richmond (£1.2m).
However, it is not uncommon for clubs to report even bigger losses as they progress up the Football League.
Such losses included Fleetwood (£9.2m), Stockport County (£7m), Salford (£5.3m), Port Vale (£3.8m), Doncaster (£3m), Harrogate (£2.5m) and Wrexham (£2.5m).
Such losses make it a daunting prospect to become self-sufficient by selling players. Division 2 players don’t get transferred for a seven figure fees on a regular basis.
Indeed, it would take 2 or 3 such sales every season for clubs like Doncaster and Harrogate to break even. Imagine losing your best 2 players every summer.
Promotion to the Football League would see a club benefit by about £1.5m in central funding and open up wider commercial opportunities.
So despite FFP / PSR, many clubs continue to make losses but that doesn’t seem to stop the ongoing flow of new investment enjoyed across the divisions.
Charlie Wright Larger than life, Charlie Wright spent nearly 2 and a half years as City manager before being sacked in March 1980. On the face of it, he cannot be judged a success.
Born in Glasgow, his football upbringing took a similar path to many, the competitive worlds of Scottish schoolboy and later “junior” (think amateur) football.
His footballing career nearly ended before it started. A keen road racing cyclist (some said that was his favourite sport), he considered moving to Belgium, then as now, a hotbed of cycling to pursue a career in that sport. As with others, a chance call from a club, Greenock Morton, lead to him turning out for them as an amateur. On the basis of one game (and glowing reports), he turned professional with Glasgow Rangers. At Rangers, he failed to make a first team appearance. He moved south to join Workington and later played for Grimsby, Charlton and Bolton, before he retired 15 years later in 1973 with 535 league appearances behind him.
During his playing career, he did his mandatory National Service. Based in Hong Kong, he was selected for their national team to play Peru, he saved a penalty and was named "Player of the Year" in Hong Kong, an accolade also won by City's reserve keeper, some would say City's best ever reserve keeper, Mick Granger, a few years earlier.
It was towards the end of his career that I first became aware of him. He was playing at Bootham Crescent for either Charlton or Bolton when he engaged in proper 2 way friendly banter and quick and funny quips with the City fans behind the goal.
At Charlton, prior to Wright, their fans and many others, would name Sam Bartram as the best uncapped keeper in England, much later, Charlton supporters held Dean Kiely in similar high goal keeping esteem.
His playing career ended at Bolton where he made 109 appearances, he was first-choice goalkeeper and was a key part of the team that won the Third Division title under Jimmy Armfield in 1973, below them, City were finishing just outside the relegation zone for a second successive season.
Wright was forced to hang up his gloves through injury but subsequently joined the Trotters' coaching staff and become youth-team coach. Goalkeepers are probably more vulnerable to serious injury than any other players on the park. Charlie was no different. He suffered from a bad back, cracked ribs, numerous broken noses, concussion and a fractured jaw. On more than one occasion, he was knocked unconscious and hospitalised.
However, it was the battering that his spine took that meant he had no choice but to hang up his gloves, "my back was knackered, the doctor told me that, if I had been a horse, they would have shot. I was 37 at the time. It was a big disappointment. I was as enthusiastic as ever and with my experience, I could read the game two moves ahead, I would have liked to have played on till I was at least 40", he said.
In goal, he was strong, courageous, had quick reflexes and could catch or deflect the ball from whatever angle, height or speed it came at his goal.
Out of goal, he was a likeable man, chirpy and extrovert, he was well known for his colourful language and big moustache. His chatty nature often came to the fore on the pitch, happily chatting with both home or away fans behind the goal. Indeed, that once resulted in a Charlton manager issuing him with “no talking” order for fear of his chat distracting him from the game.
Charlie's agility, reliability and enthusiasm meant he was well remembered by fans of all the clubs he played for.
"Great goalie for Bolton and a real character. Loved by the fans, Charlie was another superb player recruited by Jim Armfield.”
“Charlie had an excellent season in 71-72 and was a fine stopper. unassuming player but part of Jimmy Armfield's legacy at bwfc."
He was appointed City manager in November 1977 when City were in the doldrums after 2 successive relegations under Wilf McGuinness. In his first season as manager, City successfully applied for re-election before improving to a respectable 10th placed finish. The following season, City struggled and Charlie Wright was sacked in March 1980, City finished that season in 17th place.
At City, his time is possibly best remembered for the 1978/9 FA Cup run where victories at Blyth (the previous season’s giant killers when they reached the last 16) and at home to Scarborough and Luton. Surprising (or not), City attracted a bigger crowd for the Scarborough game than they did for Luton. Round 4 saw a tie at Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest, reigning English champions and just 4 months from away from their first European Cup triumph. City tamely exited the cup with a 3-1 defeat on an ice rink, Barry Wellings scored for City. It was a brief return to the big time for City after the heady days of Division 2 (Championship) just a few years earlier.
For City, his signings included Peter Lorimer, Neil Warnock and Derek Hood whilst he gave debuts to youngsters John Byrne and Gary Ford. With money very tight, his sales included Gordon Staniforth for a then club record of £120,000 and Chris Topping for £20,000.
Not many City managers have blooded 2 youngsters as talented as Byrne and Ford, indeed, few have blooded 2 together.
Sadly, Wright’s time with City cannot be judged to be a success on the pitch, but given the financial constraints he was working under, he stabilised the club and some might say, laid the foundations for 1984.
His jovial nature united City and pulled us out of the doldrums,
For Graeme Crawford, when speaking to York City South, he fondly recalled Charlie Wright. Despite Crawford’s City exploits over the previous 5 years as he helped City into the Championship, Crawford remembered how much he learnt about the art of keeping after Wright was appointed City manager, he said it was the first time anyone had really coached him in keeping techniques, including the art of positioning and angles.
After City, Wright returned to Bolton where later, in 1985, he had a spell as their manager and later a spell as a club manager in Norway. Later, he moved back to south London where he ran a successful transport cafe (“Charlie's Place“) for 15 years before retiring to the south coast. "It was hard work but rewarding. From one day to the next, you never knew who might walk in through the door. Our customers ranged from tramps and drug addicts to business people and film stars", he said.
I’m afraid that his managerial record only added to the old adage that goalkeepers don’t make good managers.
Sadly, Charlie Wright died in late December 2024. A few days later, he was remembered at Bolton with a minute's applause and black armbands and by City during our annual minute's appreciation for those of the City family who we had lost during 2024.
Tainted Love The big question on Merseyside is will Trent Alexander-Arnold’s legacy to be tainted if he leaves for Real Madrid with a secondary question being why have 3 demi gods been allowed to run down their contracts.
Firstly, it depends how you measure legacy. To the player, trophies, caps and honours are firm measures of legacy, they possibly won’t say it, but wealth and fortune are also measures and as Johnny Thunders once said, you can’t put your arms around a memory.
Many players have only temporary ties to the club they are leaving and so realistically, you can understand when they move on, legacy and fan reaction isn’t an issue. In the case of the Liverpool 3, I’m sure it’s a bigger wrench for Trent than the others given he’s spent all his life on Merseyside.
Looking back, I don’t think I’ve ever thought that a City player has tainted his legacy when leaving the club. Disappointment yes, in my time, Pat Lally and Keith Walwyn’s departures were possibly when I felt the most disappointment, they both moved to other clubs in our division. John MacPhail, Paul Barnes, Richard Cresswell and Jon Greening and others moved on, all had outgrown City as they moved up the divisions.
Maybe it is just me, a supporter of a club that seeks greater status, but knows its place in the pyramid, where many players have already tainted the club‘s legacy well before they leave City, rather than a supporter of a big club who wants it all and more.
Others ask why the 3 Liverpool demigods were all allowed to run down their contracts at the same time. Basically, none of the 3 wanted to sign a new contract 2 years ago, no one can force them to sign if they don’t want to sign.
Its common practice for clubs to put out feelers to players nearing the end of their contract (historically about a year out, nowadays in many cases, often 2 full years or more before the end of a 4 or 5 year contract, barely halfway through their current contract). At that stage, if discussions go well, and I’m sure with increased wages and juicy signing on fee, a new improved contract could be signed and the existing one ripped up. If not, discussions can go cold or stall completely.
A player is actually “losing out” by not agreeing an early new contract, “losing out” despite already being on a mouth watering contract.
Imagine the outcry, if 2 years ago Liverpool had announced TAA wouldn’t sign a new contract and was for sale. Equally, such an announcement could sour player / club relations and damage both the club and player’s bargaining position with each other or other clubs.
Back at the LNER, with Callum Howe (and others) 2 years into their original contracts, I hope City are starting to consider his future, At 31, he falls into the Van Dijk / Salah envelope, his best footballing days might be considered to be behind him. Clubs need to weigh up a lucrative new contract against the great unknown of when an ageing players’ form will suddenly tail off.
An additional dynamic for City when talking new contracts is that City don’t yet known which division they‘ll be in next season.
I for one would never begrudge a player from holding out until late in the day to agree a new contract, frustrating for the fans but the players are just looking after number one, something we all do.
8 Second Rule I’m not expecting great things from the new 8 second rule in which keepers are supposed to release the ball. The old 6 second rule fell into disuse, supposedly, referees felt the award of an indirect free kick for transgression was too large a penalty so didn’t enforce it.
Now, keepers have 8 seconds and the referee is supposed to give a signal and a countdown. Does that mean that keepers can’t be trusted (or are unable) to count up to 8 for themselves?
If properly applied, I like to think the rule will mean keepers releasing the ball before the opposition have got themselves properly organised. It will suit the teams and keepers who are tactically astute, hopefully meaningful game time will be increased, favouring teams who like to play football, rewarding teams who want to play on the front foot and to move the ball more quickly.
No more keepers lying outstretched on the ground, like a beached whale, surveying the whole pitch in front of them for a good 15 seconds and often taking over 20 seconds to put the ball back into play.
Will the referees properly implement the rule? Maybe for a couple of weeks before they fall back into their old ways as players complain about the extra effort involved as the game speeds up.
Now if only we could come up with a solution for keepers who go down with cramp after 20 minutes.
Everyone For Hinshball? In a previous article I wrote about how little impact some of our loanees had made whilst on loan at City during the 2023/4 season. Were they good enough, were they ready or were they just slow learners.
Undoubtedly, some were not good enough, but increasingly, I’m thinking can players make a quick impact when they arrive mid season?
We signed Marvin Armstrong. In the doldrums at Barnet, admittedly they were higher up the table than City, but he arrived and immediately “got” what Hinsh wanted him do. Alex Hunt had a mare on his City debut in Neal Ardley’s last game. At the time, I’d have been happy if he never played for City again. He was totally ineffective before being pulled off at half time. Dropped to the bench, he didn’t see game action again until Hinsh’s fourth game.
Before he left, Neal Ardley had indicated we wouldn’t see “his team” until the 2024/5 season, no doubt a combination of making changes to the side but also pre-season would allow him a solid block of time to impart his ideas on the team.
He never got the summer he craved. Hinsh replaced him.
The majority of Hinsh’s signings were done early in the summer and the team hit the ground running this season. The new players fitted into the side seamlessly.
Paddy McLaughlin was quoted as saying in Hinsh’s early days, how he drilled into the players what he wanted, it may have taken him 4 games, but results started to change. Paddy went onto say that in pre-season 2024, Hinsh had time to really make his philosophy stick.
Hinsh appears to be obsessive, meticulously working with his players, so they always knew where to be on the pitch, both in and out of possession.
During the 2024/5 season, it was often noted how players popped up, out of position, trying to create overloads, a key element in Hinsh’s tactical set up, but other players spotted this and were prepared to cover for teammates who’d gone forward.
In Hinsh’s early days, some players fell by the wayside, deemed surplus to requirements, I wonder how much was down to footballing or mental ability, were they not good enough or unable to take on board Hinsh’s tactical requirements.
During the 2024/5 season, we saw several new arrivals. How many were successful?
I’d say Malachi Fagan-Walcott and Lewis Richardson can be judged as successes. Whilst MFW quickly settled into the side, Richardson improved the longer he was here, in a similar way, Cam John who arrived as a pre-season triallist, new to Hinshball improved across the season.
Of the others (including David Ajiboye, Mo Fadera, Jordon Garrick (triallist), Jeff King, Junior Luamba, Luca Thomas and even Josh Stones), none can be said to have been successes. I’ve included Josh Stones, a big money signing, largely consigned to the bench, he can’t really be named a success, although given a full summer, I’m sure we’ll see a different Stones next season.
So for the mid season arrivals, it was generally no, Hinshball wasn’t for them.
Maybe to play Hinshball, you need to be an early summer signing and get indoctrinated during pre-season training.
Ricky Sbragia A journeyman Scottish born defender, Ricky Sbragia was an apprentice with top flight Birmingham City. Despite a handful of appearances, he couldn’t establish himself in their side and moved onto Walsall in 1978 for £15,000. In his first full season, they were Division 4 runners up and he earned a £35,000 summer move to Blackpool. He was unable to establish himself in their Division 3 side and was released in 1982.
Denis Smith made him one of his first City signings. Released, he wrote to several clubs asking for a contract. Few replied, Rochdale were prepared to offer him a 2 year deal. He drove from his Blackpool home to Rochdale, turned straight around and went home without getting to the Spotland ground. City’s initial offer was only short term, but he eventually agreed a one year deal, albeit on less money than Rochdale were prepared to offer.
Sbragia was an ever present in his first season and then missing just one game in City’s 1983/4 Division 4 championship winning season.
He was a rock at the heart of City’s defence, the quiet, cultured and unflustered man alongside the more flamboyant man, first Denis Smith and then John MacPhail.
In the 1984/5 season, again he was a regular on the team sheet, until he succumbed to a back injury received in the Liverpool FA Cup replay. It was an injury that was to trouble him for the rest of his playing career.
Recovering, his injury, he was to play on for another 2 seasons before announcing his retirement in the summer of 1987.
One high spot of his career was his goal against Liverpool in the 1985 FA Cup tie, but he’d probably say he was at his best when defending.
In total, he made 179 appearances for City, scoring 10 goals, the club where he enjoyed the most playing success of his career.
As a player, perhaps Sbragia didn’t get credit he deserved. He had a good footballing brain and could read the game. Used to being an “old school“ centre back at his previous clubs, Smith got Sbragia to stay on his feet and pass the ball (the opposite to what his previous managers wanted him to do), but Sbragia’s preferred style of play.
Until his back injury, he was just as important to City’s side as John MacPhail and that is high praise.
On retirement, he joined City’s youth coaching staff. Largely known as “Youth Team Manager”, he also briefly held the title of “Reserve Team Manager” and gained his coaching badges. He guided City’s youth team to the quarter finals of the 1992/3 FA Youth Cup.
In his time at City, his young charges included Richard Cresswell, Jon Greening, Graeme Murty, Nick Culkin and Darren Williams who all left City for decent fees. Around £3m in total.
In early October 1994, he accepted an offer to take up a youth team coaching role at Sunderland. Douglas Craig told Sbragia that he turned down initial interest from Sunderland stating Ricky was happy with City, however Ricky asked to speak to Sunderland.
For most of his coaching career at City, it is believed that he was on a week by week contract. However some other reports suggested he'd recently signed a 3 year contract with City, in all probability, it was offered by Douglas Craig when the Sunderland interest came along. Whatever, Sbragia indicated that Craig was largely unaware of the youth set up. Sbragia was much closer to director Colin Webb whose remit included the youth set-up.
He spent 8 years at Sunderland working with the youth team and later the reserve team.
In 2002, for once in his life, he put out feelers and applied for the vacancy as Manchester United’s reserve team coach. Sir Alex Ferguson recalled how he’d been impressed with the passing style of Sbragia’s City youth side at Old Trafford in 1993 FA Youth Cup tie. Moving onto Manchester United, he had 3 years as Reserve Team Manager before a spell as Bolton’s first team coach. Staying in the top flight, he re-joined Sunderland’s coaching staff in November 2007 and was, rather reluctantly, appointed caretaker manager a year later following the departure of Roy Keane. A couple of 4 goal wins and the job was his on a permanent basis, guiding Sunderland to Premier League survival on the final day of the season before resigning as manager, although he remained at Sunderland as Chief Scout, in April 2011.
5 years coaching Scottish age sides followed, initially as Under 17 coach, progressing with the side up to Under 21 level.
His next and final role saw him return to Manchester United in July 2017 as Under 23 manager under Mourinho and then Solskjaer before being sacked in May 2019.
When coaching City’s youth side, he had a real affinity with his young charges who looked up to and respected him. On the pitch the 1993 FA Youth Cup quarter final and being runners up in the 1994 Northern Intermediate League were the high spots, both in his time with City and the history of youth football at York City.
For one, Graeme Murty noted how Sbragia always showed tough love, but always with an important lesson for a young player to take on board.
In the 1990s, when selling new frontiers, Ricky was one of the few City personnel who regularly bought a copy, thrusting a one pound coin into my hand and telling me to keep the change for the next issue. Next issue, invariably it was another one pound coin and the same instruction.
Footnote: In 2014, he was a very late candidate when Russ Wilcox's appointment as City's manager was about to be confirmed.
Notts County Insider Revealed, the inside story of how Notts County appointed their new manager.
On May 17 (2025), County lost their play off semi final to AFC Wimbledon which prompted the start of their end of season review initiated by their ownership consortium, led the Danish brothers Christoffer and Alex Reedtz, the brains behind statistical football analysis company Football Radar.
5 days later, head coach Stuart Maynard was sacked after 16 months in charge after he failed to guide them to promotion from League 2 following a poor end to the season. The owners in their ChatGPT written platitudes said, “after being unable to achieve our aim of winning promotion this season, we share the disappointment felt by everyone connected with the club, while football is a game of fine margins, and Stuart undoubtedly faced numerous challenges over the course of the campaign, neither results nor performances reached the levels we believe the team was capable of - particularly during the defining period towards the end. We have parted company with our head coach who leaves with our very best wishes and gratitude for his considerable commitment and dedication to the role”. They went on, “alongside our recently-appointed Head of Football, Roberto Gagliardi, our work is well underway to identify the correct coaching team and new signings to join us on these important next steps of our journey.”
They drew up a list of criteria for their next manager, the criteria being cheap, plays attacking football, promotion of youth players and a record of success.
During the heatwave, deliberations were held outside at County’s training ground. Their database throw up a plethora of Scandinavian sounding managers and a short list was drawn up. One intrepid journalist, spying from a tree saw a list of names on post it notes on the white board. His report saw the bookies form a market and all the usual suspects (and many more besides) were quoted at ridiculously short odds.
Essentially, it was a re-hash of the market the bookies had just binned following the appointment of David Hughes as Newport’s manager, a name that had caught the bookies by total surprise. The County list was spiced up with various Scandinavian managers, Dean Brennan, Des Buckingham, Adam Hinshelwood and managers of a local standing including Sam Allardyce and Neil Warnock.
Day by day, the market fluctuated wildly as people put their change from Poundland’s big rival, the 99p shop on the outcome.
Hinsh was quickly ruled out by the selection panel, they noted he had a similar background to the outgoing manager Maynard, in achieving nothing and had no FL experience whilst last season, he gave youth players just 3 minutes of game time. County’s player scouting team backed up the brothers noting that their number one target Maz Kouhyar was not rated by Hinsh.
That said, on May 25, Adam Hinshelwood and his young son were spotted in the Trowell service station on the M1 just outside Nottingham having a celebratory cuppa and coke after Jack's 2 goals in Brighton’s 4-1 win at Spurs. The national journalist, billeted to Nottingham for the duration of County’s manager hunt spotted them and Hinsh was quickly promoted to 2/1 favourite for the job.
As County dithered, Hinsh’s odds lengthened as the odds for a flurry of Danish managers and coaches were shortened. However, on June 2, again the journo spotted Hinsh and all his family at Trowell, this time he spoke to Hinsh but doesn’t believe him when he’s said they’re breaking their journey home after a weekend break in Brighton with son Jack. Having drifted in the market during the week, Hinsh is installed at odds on 4/6 favourite.
With Hinsh back at favourite, the brothers Reedtz take a second look at Hinsh. Again, they don’t see a fit, speaking to their colleagues at Chesterfield they firmly believe that Matt Uggla wouldn’t let Hinsh leave cheaply. In addition, they believe the recent departure of Tony McMahon means that Hinsh has far too much autonomy to what they envisage for County's next manager.
As candidate after candidate rejects County, the brothers widened their statistical study, this time taking in additional expert analysis from Oddschecker, BetVictor and SkyBet.
What do the bookies know? They had Des Buckingham 8/13 clear favourite for Cardiff, 2/1 for Notts County and 9/4 for Plymouth. Sounds like a man in demand. His agent has been busy down the bookies. They know nothing. In the last three weeks they had Hinsh, Steffen Højer, Tobias Solberg, Des Buckingham, Leam Richardson, Joao Alves and Jack Wilshere all as odds-on favourites. Possibly more, and some of them more than once. I never once saw Martin Paterson mentioned, but given they often named 50+ managers, I might be mistaken.
Finally, one brother turns to the other and says, “there are lies, damned lies, and statistics, pass me a pin”. Job done.
Oh! Brother The summer signing of Alex Newby added to the list of City’s footballing families, but not the first twin to play for City. It remains to be seen whether he comes face to face with his twin Eliot of Barrow.
For the record, It would not be the first time brothers have faced each other in City games. When Alan Little was our manager, he faced Stoke managed by elder brother Brian during the 1998/9 season) whilst last season was a first for City when they came up against the Lisbie twins (Kyreece and Kyrell) playing for Braintree in March.
David McNiven lead City's strike force during the 2000/1 season, his twin brother Scott was a pro and their Dad, David Snr, was a top flight striker (briefly) with Don Revie's Leeds side and spent most of his career at Bradford City.
However pride of place must go to the 4 Kay brothers from Great Ouseburn. Between them, Thornton Lambert Kay, Eric Newbald Kay, Frederick Robert Kay and William Arthur Kay made a grand total of 8 appearances (no goals) between 1923 and 1926.
Of the brothers who’ve played for City, possibly Marco and Riccardo Gabbiadini are the best remembered, certainly Marco. A young starlet, his class was obvious when he made his City debut under Denis Smith, he found his scoring boots after an £80,000 move to Sunderland. A £1.5 million transfer to Crystal Palace saw City net a healthy sell on fee. Younger brother, Riccardo made just one appearance as a substitute for City before Sunderland gambled on the family gene coming good again, this time it didn’t.
The 1980s might have been a golden era for home grown City brothers. Brian and Albert Chippendale and Nigel and Adrian Costello came through City’s youth ranks. Between them, they made just 17 City appearances (most as substitutes) and scored one goal, Brian’s goal in City’s League Cup defeat at QPR in 1984 before finding their level in non league football.
Well before my time, City fielded several sets of brothers. Pre 1929, George and Joe Harron were followed by England schoolboy internationals George and Tommy Maskill and Joe and Reg Baines. Reg had 3 spells with City stretching over 14 years to 1938 and City’s run to the quarter finals of the FA Cup. In total, he scored 93 goals in 140 games, between times, he was twice poached by bigger clubs.
The Tait brothers (Barry and Peter) had brief City playing careers in the late 1950s. Barry returned as part of the youth coaching set up during the heyday of the youth production line in the early 1990s.
Looking ahead to the new season, Callum Howe will hope to face his brother Dec when City play Scunthorpe having been denied the opportunity in the FA Trophy last season.
Finally, City’s Assistant Manager, Gary Elphick is the elder brother of Tommy who had a long career (playing and coaching) with Bournemouth.
I’m afraid with that list of brothers, City don’t reach the heights of other footballing families, the likes of the Allen clan, the Charlton brothers or Morgan twins. However, the 4 Kay brothers, give us a claim to fame, even if between them they totalled less than one twentieth the number of City appearances as Roy Kay (no relation).
(City) Shorts