Today I'm going back ten years to 2012 and the start of a glorious week for York City in which they appeared at Wembley twice in eight days. The first of those games was the FA Trophy Final against Newport County attended by 19,844.
The programme cover stars are the captains of the participants: County's Gary Warren and City's own Chris Smith. Gary Warren played for Mangotsfield United and Team Bath before joining Newport in 2009. He left Newport immediately after that FA Trophy Final, going north of the border to join Inverness Caledonian Thistle where he would play for Terry Butcher. He finished his career back in the South-West will stints at Yeovil Town, Exeter City and Torquay United. Chris Smith actually had two spells at York, the first coming in the period 2001-2004 during which he made 88 appearances (no goals) before rejoining the club in 2010, signed by Gary Mills and being instantly installed as the skipper of the side. In that second spell with York, Smith made 134 appearances scoring nine goals and all of his Football League appearances (133 in total) came whilst he played for York. Surely his most important goal for the club came in the final game of season 2012/13 in a relegation six pointer against Dagenham & Redbridge to help keep the club in the Football League. I don't think that there's been a York captain who has lifted as much silverware as Chris Smith and for that we can be truly grateful!
As an extra bonus from the featured match, I've added a cover shot of Newport's Wembley Souvenir Special to my blog. It wasn't, strictly, the official programme but certainly looks and feels like one. One of my favourite things about that Final was the song "York City State of Mind" written and performed by City fan Chuitar. If you're a City fan the song is both amusing and rousing and is frankly excellent. I've added a Youtube link to my blog for City fans to revel in nostagia one more time. The video includes a number of shots of Bootham Crescent for added poignancy. "We can beat Newport, Newport, Newport". But did you know that there is also a Newport parody of the song that's equally good although not FA Trophy related? Definitely worth giving both versions a listen and deciding which one you prefer, as long as you're not too much of a fan of the JayZ and Alicia Keys original of course!
That FA Trophy Final was Newport's first ever national Final and was also their first ever visit to Wembley whereas York had become regular visitors to Wembley and would be visiting again the following week. Wembley was renamed Bootham Crescent South by City supporters for those precious few days! En route to Wembley, City had beaten Solihull Moors after a replay, Salisbury City, Ebbsfleet United (the only game in the run that I missed), Grimsby Town and Luton Town in an epic two-legged Semi-Final. Now for the Final itself which City clearly wanted to win irrespective of the fact that the much more important prize of a return to the Football League was coming up just one week later.
The featured game was goalless at half time with both sides having chances albeit that they weren't particularly clear cut. The decisive moment in the game came in the 66th minute when a direct ball over the top of the Newport defence put Matty Blair clear. Blair got to the bounce of the ball ahead of Newport's goalkeeper Glyn Thompson, flicked it over the keeper's head and it bounced into the net. City were one-up and one of my all-time favourite players had scored at Wembley! Just in case you're wondering why I'm such a fan of Matty Blair, I was present at his senior debut in men's football whilst he was playing for Racing Club Warwick and I saw many of his early games in a career that would eventually end up in the Football League playing for the likes of York, Fleetwood Town, Mansfield Town, Doncaster Rovers and Doncaster Rovers.
Eight minutes later and York clinched it with a tap in goal from full-back Lanre Oyebanjo. There was no way back for County who instantly looked beaten and you just knew that City weren't going to let their lead slip. Oyebanjo played in the Football League for both York and Crawley Town and appeared 112 times for York scoring just three goals including this one! It finished 2-0 to York. They'd had a great day out, won a trophy (THE Trophy) and, perhaps most importantly, they'd got comfortable with their surroundings ahead of the crucial game against Luton Town the following week. City would be back!
CRB Match No. 1898
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