Today I'm going back 39 years to 1983 and York City's visit to Field Mill, home of Mansfield Town, on Fourth Division duty. The attendance that day was 2,288.
The match finished two goals apiece with Gary Ford and Keith Walwyn scoring for York with Mansfield's reply coming from John Dungworth and Dave Caldwell. Denis Smith's York side that day had more than a look of the following season's title winning side about it as it comprised Jones, Evans, Hay, Sbragia, MacPhail, Hood, Ford, Crosby, Walwyn, Byrne and Pollard.
In Mansfield's line-up was an 18 year old Colin Calderwood playing in his first professional season. Calderwood would go on to play at the top level for Tottenham having been signed from Swindon Town for Spurs by manager Ossie Ardiles. Calderwood was one of Ardiles' better signings and he would go on to make 163 Premier League appearances for Spurs, scoring 6 goals before moving on to Aston Villa in 1999. A broken leg in 2001 finished his career whilst playing for Nottingham Forest. Calderwood also earned 36 international caps for Scotland, scoring one goal (against San Marino) before moving into coaching where he has managed Northampton Town, Nottingham Forest, Hibernian and Cambridge United. Calderwood is currently in the assistant manager role back at Northampton Town.
Compared to recent seasons, 1982/83 proved to be a good one for York City, finishing as they did in seventh place. They were on the up under manager Denis Smith and the following season would prove to be a golden one in which they were promoted as Champions for the only time in their history. York's home form was excellent and, indeed, they lost just once at home in the League to Champions Wimbledon who cleaned up more than just the Common that season and won the League with 98 points. Had City managed just a couple more away wins to add to the disappointing total of four that they did achieve, they would have been promoted too since they finished only four points behind the final promotion place occupied by Scunthorpe United. As it was, Wimbledon were promoted along with Hull City, Port Vale and the aforementioned Irons. Perhaps York weren't quite ready for promotion and I don't think many City fans would swap York's 1983/84 Fourth Division triumph for promotion a year earlier in fourth place. Mansfield finished the season further down the table in tenth place. The bottom four of Blackpool, Hartlepool United, Crewe Alexandra and Hereford United were all duly re-elected in preference to non-league Maidstone United.
CRB Match No. 248
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