Today I'm going back 36 years to 1985 and York City's visit to Eastville to play Bristol Rovers in Canon League Division 3 in front of an attendance of 4,174. This was the second of two visits that I made to Eastville, the traditional home of Rovers who vacated the site in 1986 in favour of Twerton Park in not so nearby Bath due to their dreaded "financial difficulties". Rovers were destined to ply their trade outside of Bristol for a decade until finally returning home to the Memorial Stadium, home at the time to Bristol's Rugby Union club in 1996. I never warmed to Eastville because, rather like an athletics stadium, there was a track between the spectators and the pitch, this one a greyhound track, which made everything seem just that bit further away. Following the departure of Rovers to pastures new, the stadium closed for good in 1997 and eventually became an Ikea superstore. For many years one of the floodlights remained on the site as an unlit beacon to the memory of Rovers' former home and was clearly visible from the M32 close by but that too has now gone.
Eastville was built close to one of those gigantic gas holders that used to be a feature on many a city's skyline and this gave rise to Rovers being christened "The Gas" (surely a derogatory term bestowed by City supporters?) and their fans termed "Gas Heads". However, back in 1985, Rovers predominant nickname was "the Pirates", hence the title of the programme. Disappointingly it wasn't priced in pieces of eight and none of the sellers had either wooden legs or parrots on their shoulder. I'd have liked to have seen a picture of some jolly gas on the cover of the programme mind in lieu of pirate Roger.
Season 1985/86 was one of York's best ever seasons in the Football League. They finished seventh with one of the best home records in the Division. Sadly their away record was poor with only four wins on the road from 23 games including this victory at Eastville. Rovers finished the season in 16th position. I wonder what would both clubs give today to have their fortunes restored to those of these heady days?
CRB Match No. 403
Comments
Post a Comment