For April 21st I'm going back 9 years to 2012 and York's visit to Braintree Town in the National League Premier.
Mid-April is the business end of the season when the games are running out and promotion and relegation spots are being decided. Sir Alex Ferguson memorably called it "squeaky bum time". With two games left to go, York went into this game sitting in fourth place in the league and still not certain of a promotion Play-Off place. Braintree, managed by Alan Devonshire or "Devs" as the programme seemed to want to call him, were having a good season so this was always going to be a nervous afternoon for York.
In such circumstances, what you always want is a strong and fair referee. Thankfully the referee that day (Stephen Martin) showed both characteristics in abundance in the first half when sending off Braintree striker and programme cover star Sean Marks for a second bookable offence. Thanks to the slow motion replay (see the video attached to my blog), we can see that it was the correct decision but I think that a lot of (weaker) referees would have given a penalty to Braintree instead.
A somewhat surprising appearance that day for the Minstermen came between the posts as Paul Musselwhite donned the gloves due to an injury to regular keeper Michael Ingham. Musselwhite had joined City as a goalkeeping coach to help out manager Gary Mills and the club sensibly took the precaution of registering him as a player. He created something of a record by becoming York's oldest ever debutant at the age of 43 and he made three appearances in total, including the one in this game, keeping three clean sheets in the process. By my reckoning, statistically he must be York's best ever keeper!
Before a crowd of 1,127, York made heavy weather of securing the victory that they needed however, missing more than one sitter before picking up the points with a goal from Norwegian loan signing Erik Tonne with just 15 minutes remaining. It was Tonne's fourth and final appearance for York and indeed he only made six appearances for Sheffield United, his parent club before returning to Norway where he still plays. It was short but sweet and his goal was crucial. The win secured York's Play-Off place.
CRB Match No. 1892
Comments
Post a Comment