Today I'm going back ten years to 2012 and York City's National League fixture against Newport County at Bootham Crescent, played in front of a paltry 2,824 spectators. I say paltry because there were just two weeks and four games left of the regular season and, as City manager Gary Mills said in his programme notes, "what a couple of weeks it's going to be for our football club... we are in one of the Play-Off positions and we must make sure, come April 28th, that that is where we stay". Hot on York's heel and just outside of the Play-Off places were Southport (2 points behind and having played a game more) and Luton Town (three points behind and with a game in hand on York). Newport needed points themselves for a different reason as they were sitting in 19th place going into the game and not yet mathematically safe. So where were the York public on that sunny Saturday afternoon?
Cover star on that day's programme was full-back James Meredith, airborne against Fleetwood Town during the home defeat the previous Saturday. Meredith was something of a star performer in the York side that season and he went on to have a fine career in the Football League. Meredith, an Australian by birth, is currently plying his trade back in Sydney in Australia's A-League for Macarthur FC. Immediately following York's ultimately successful season he joined Bradford City (220 appearances and 4 goals) that summer and went on to play for Millwall in the Championship (85 appearances). Meredith made 162 appearances (scoring 3 goals) for the Minstermen and, indeed, he would figure prominently in a conversation about the finest full-backs ever to play for York City.
Things didn't go well for York in the featured game however and they found themselves behind after just four minutes thanks to a looping header from a set piece scored by Newport's Nat Jarvis and which goalkeeper Michael Ingham could do nothing about. It took York until the 59th minute to even things up through Jason Walker and we thought, with half an hour still to play, that they'd go on to win the game but it was not to be. Amazingly at the final whistle you could hear one or two boos from a few of the fans in attendance. Some people should give their heads a wobble!
York picked up ten points from those final four games of the regular season (the two dropped were from today's featured game) and they finished fourth with Luton Town just behind in the fifth and final Play-Off place. Newport County, managed by former Spurs player Justin Edinburgh, ended the season in 19th place, six points clear of the drop zone and the two clubs would meet again that season, this time at the National Stadium at Wembley (or Bootham Crescent South as it is known to York fans) as City kicked off their glorious eight days in May by winning the FA Trophy.
CRB Match No. 1891
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