For March 11th I'm going back 43 years to 1978 and York City's League Division 4 fixture against Swansea City.
This was in my first season watching football and was only my 4th York City match attended. These were the days of begging a lift to Bootham Crescent from school friend David Bower (or Dad Peter to be more accurate) and sharing a full car from Wetherby to York with brother Rick and their neighbour Harold. Happy days!
Swansea were on their way to 3rd place and promotion to Division 3, part of a rapid rise up the leagues under John Toshack who had only been appointed as Swansea manager just over a week earlier on 1st March. Toshack was only 28 years old and became the youngest manager in the Football League at that time, taking over from predecessor Harry Griffiths who, remarkably stayed on as Toshack's assistant. Even more remarkably, Griffiths died of a heart attack within 2 months of these managerial changes. Three promotions in four seasons had the Swans in the top flight and they even reached the summit of Division 1 in the early weeks of season 1981/82. It was not to last however and by 1986 they returned to Division 4 which they had left only 8 years earlier!
York for their part finished the season in 22nd spot (of 24) and were obliged to seek re-election for the sixth time in order to retain their place in the Football League. Re-election had largely been a formality in prior years and York were duly re-elected that season. However, Southport, who finished one place below York and one place and 7 points above rock bottom Rochdale, were not so lucky. Southport tied in the first ballot with non-league Wigan Athletic but Wigan were successful second time around and Southport were unceremoniously chucked out of the Football League by their peers never to return. Southport were the last team to lose their Football League place in this way and automatic promotion and relegation commenced 8 years later in 1986/87.
So this game would be a straight forward away win for Swansea right? Wrong! Despite leading at half time thanks to a strike from the Football League's 32-goal top scorer (jointly with Brentford's Steve Phillips) Alan Curtis, York came back to win thanks to 2 penalties scored by Gordon Staniforth. The attendance that day was only 1,964.
CRB Match No. 10
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