Today I'm going back 36 years to 1985 and York City's August Bank Holiday fixture at home to Wigan Athletic.
York had gone into the new season off the back of a highly respectable eighth place finish the previous season in what was their first season in the Third Division since the mid-70's. Generally York being in the Third Division leaves me with a sense of the club "punching above their weight" with par being somewhere between the bottom half of the Fourth Division and the top half of the Conference these days. Heady times indeed and the club had kicked off the new season with a home victory against Plymouth Argyle before tasting a 4-2 defeat at Bury two days earlier.
In front of a healthy attendance of 4,067, Denis Smith's rampant City side were two-up by halftime and scored four in all with two goals coming from "Mean" Keith Walwyn and two from Gary Ford. Bryan Hamilton's Latics scored their consolation via substitute Warren Aspinall but were well beaten. Wigan's line-up that day included future Premier League manager Paul Jewell and striker Mike Newell, another player who had "more clubs than Jack Nicklaus" during his long career which included a Premier League winners medal with Blackburn Rovers in 1995.
Walwyn is a true York City legend and I feel fortunate to have seen him in his pomp, playing for City between 1981 and 1987, making 291 appearances and scoring 140 goals (now that's a respectable strike rate Joe Jordan!) which makes him the club's second highest all-time scorer. I wonder how many City fans would know that Keith was actually one of Walwyn's middle names and that his first name was Kenford? He was born on Nevis, part of Saint Kitts & Nevis and therefore is "Kittitian" (that's a new word for your vocabulary and one to impress your friends with next time you're discussing your favourite ever York players). Walwyn died tragically young aged 47 in 2003.
York went on to have another relatively successful season finishing one place higher in seventh position whilst Wigan finished three places higher in fourth, just missing out on promotion by a point in the days before Play-Offs came into being. This was to be something of a high water mark for City who would find themselves back in the bottom tier of the Football League two seasons later following the departure of Denis Smith.
CRB Match No. 387
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