Today I'm going back five years to 2017 and York City's National League fixture played on an artificial surface at Sutton United's Borough Sports Ground in Gander Green Lane in front of 2,171. Today's programme cover star is Sutton's amber and chocolate hero Dan Fitchett who started this game on the Sutton bench..
Brown, or chocolate, as Sutton prefer to refer to it, is a colour combination not frequently found these days when it comes to football kits. Back in days of yore, the combination of chocolate and amber or gold was a much more regular occurrence as was salmon pink but these have fallan out of favour over the years. Red, blue or white shirts are far and away the most popular choice amongst modern football clubs. Vertical stripes aren't very unusual but horizontal stripes or hoops as they tend to be known are seldom seen at football. QPR and Celtic are notable exceptions to the unwritten "no hoops rule" but hoops seem to be wildly popular amongst Rugby Union clubs and I have no idea why that's the case. Purple is another colour that seldom gets a look in with football clubs although Italy's Fiorentina wear a very passable shade of violet. Black shirts are now much more popular than they were, particularly for clubs that decide that they need a third choice of kit. Historically black would not have been chosen because that was the colour (is black a colour?) worn by the referee and his assistants but even the officials have now got in on the act and are often to be seen sporting yellow or pink shirts. I read an interesting article recently about the impact of colour blindness on both players and spectators. Apparently around one in twelve men and one in 200 women suffer from the condition making it difficult to distinguish between certain colours. Commonly differentiation between green and red can be a problem and colour blind people often struggle to distinguish between colours that have the same degree of darkness (or lightness). I am surprised that we don't hear more about this issue as statistically, every Premier League squad will have a couple of players with the condition. Perhaps next time you see Manchester United sporting zebra stripes you will be less critical of their kit?
It was something of a surprise to learn that John Parkin had been selected for York in today's featured game because Parkin was known to have problems playing on an artificial surface. All the goals came in the final 20 minutes with Sutton scoring first thanks to a long range daisy cutter from Nicky Bailey after 74 minutes. Then, in the 87th minute, Sutton looked to have things all wrapped up when Sean Newton's attempted backpass to goalkeeper Kyle Letheren turned into a comedy howler of an own goal and York were two goals down. York were desperate for points at the wrong end of the table and showed that they weren't dead yet two minutes later when substitute Scott Fenwick headed past Sutton keeper Will Puddy (one of only two League goals that Fenwick scored for York) from a corner but surely this was just a consolation? Incredibly, in the fifth minute of time added on for stoppages, another substitute, this time Yan Klukowski scored from a free kick. Right at the death City had a precious point!
Season 2016/17 ended up in disaster for York City however. Following a dreadful start to the season under the mismanagement of Jackie McNamara, the restoration of Gary Mills to the managerial hot seat came too late to save the Minstermen who were relegated on the last day of the season by a single point, finishing in 21st position (out of 24). Sutton United, who were playing their first season back in the top flight of Non-League football for 16 years and who finished just eight points ahead of York, found themselves in the top half of the table in 12th place. Since 2017 Sutton have gone on to even better things and now play in League 2 in the Football League whilst York continue to slum it in the National League North.
CRB Match No. 2144
Comments
Post a Comment