Today I'm going back 26 years to 1995 and York City's away game at the County Ground. Swindon. It was a battle of the railway towns and a fixture that doesn't seem to come around very often as the two clubs always seem to occupy different divisions. In this case the two sides both found themselves in "Endsleigh League Division 2" or League Division 3 in old money (the equivalent of League 1 today) but it wasn't to last much longer as Swindon were promoted as Champions at the end of the season whilst 20th placed York saved themselves by just three points from relegated Carlisle United.
Before an expectant West Country crowd of 7,746 in their first home game of the season, Steve McMahon's Swindon side went one-up in the first minute thanks to a headed goal from Steve Finney. The first half was all Swindon and they got their second just before half time via a penalty for handball which was despatched by former Welsh international Paul Bodin (23 caps). Bodin famously missed a penalty when the score was 1–1 in Wales' final and decisive World Cup qualifier at home to Romania, a game Wales needed to win in order to qualify. Wales went on to lose the game 2–1 and speaking afterwards he said "I have had to live with that hurt and it never quite goes away". York hurt too that day. They didn't get a shot in the entire game and, in the 66th minute, that man Finney again got Swindon's third and final goal of the afternoon.
In addition to player-manager McMahon, Swindon had a more than useful side with 19 year old Shay Given in goal and the infamous Ian Culverhouse who gave his name to the Culverhouse game on Talk Sport Radio. For fans of York City, this game featured a collectors item as it included one of Scott Oxley's two Football League appearances. Oxley was substituted by Paul Atkin and so didn't complete the game.
CRB Match No. 979
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