Today I'm going back ten years to 2012 and an awesome day in York City's history. This was the day that York beat Luton Town at Wembley to round off a glorious eight days with promotion back to the Football League.
It was no great surprise that the City fans found themselves outnumbered by Hatters followers at Wembley that day. City seem to take around 10,000 supporters to all their big Wembley games which, I suppose, represents the vast majority of York City fans in existence. The overall attendance on that sunny day in May was 39,265 and I'd estimate that around three quarters of the crowd were there to see the Hatters win. Certainly, within 80 seconds of the kick-off, they must have thought that they were on their way as Andre Gray slotted home from an acute angle to give Luton the lead. It was Gray's seventh goal in 12 games following his transfer from Hinckley United (I featured Gray in one of my recent blog articles so, if you missed it, go there and search on Andre Gray).
As the commentator (on the highlights video attached to my blog) pointed out, City had lost just one of the ten previous meetings with Luton but the early goal was definitely a setback. Luckily there was the best part of 88 minutes remaining to do something about it! In fact City restored parity in the 26th minute after a prolonged spell of pressure. From a free kick the ball was played back across the penalty area and Ashley Chambers, following up, struck a sweet half volley high into the net for one apiece. Now it was game on!
As we were to discover, it wasn't just Luton Town who could score a goal within 80 seconds of the kick-off. Straight from the restart for the second half, York took the ball up to the Luton end of the field and won themselves a throw in. Lanre Oyebanjo, City's long throw specialist launched one into the Luton penalty area, it was glanced on by Daniel Parslow and there was Matty Blair to pounce and fire past the Luton keeper Mark Tyler. What the linesman failed to notice was that Blair was offside and not by a little bit either. He was a good yard offside and thankfully the officials saw nothing wrong and the goal stood. We were fortunate that there was no VAR otherwise the goal would have been immediately chalked off. Sometimes, just sometimes, you get a little bit of luck, a bit of good fortune and things go your way. Lord knows down the years I've seen York on the wrong end of some dreadful decisions but, just for once, the football Gods were smiling on City and we were in front!
York's luck hadn't all been used up with that goal either and we watched with our hearts in our mouths as Andre Gray swung and missed the ball when right in front of goal in the six yard box with a little over ten minutes remaining. It was a crucial let off and was accompanied by some desperate defending to keep the City goal intact for the remaining minutes which felt like hours. When the whistle finally sounded and York were back in the Football League, manager Gary Mills went down on his knees to thank those footballing Gods. He had delivered on the most important stage of all twice in eight days. Nobody looked more shocked than Mills. It was a week that no City fan will ever forget.
Scrolling forward just ten years and the change in fortunes of the two clubs taking part that day couldn't be more remarkable. York took their place back in the Football League in 2012/13 but found themselves relegated back into Non League with a bottom place finish in 2015/16 with a further relegation to the sixth tier of English football to follow in 2016/17. It was the lowest level of League football for York since 1929 and they're still fighting to get out to this day. Luton Town who seemingly simply could not navigate their way through the Play-Offs eventually secured automatic promotion back to the Football League in 2013/14. In 2016/17 Luton failed in the Play-Offs yet again before being promoted to League 1 automatically the following season. Back to back promotion was to follow as they became Champions of League 1 in 2018/19, securing a return to the Championship after an absence of twelve years. Incredibly Luton are back contesting the Play-Offs for promotion to the Premier League this season so perhaps losing that Play-Off Final against York was the best thing that they ever did? Certainly the footballing Gods have rediscovered the Hatters and forgotten about the Minstermen since 2012. Maybe the tide is about to turn?
In addition to the programme cover, my blog also features the front cover of a Wembley souvenir special programme which commemorates those two Wembley victories in 2012. The cover star? Who could be more appropriate that my favourite player Matty Blair, a scorer in both matches? Happy days indeed!
CRB Match No. 1899
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