Today I'm going back 36 years to 1986 and York City's Third Division fixture against Bury played at Bootham Crescent with an attendance of exactly 3,800.
City had started the new season in good form and after four games found themselves sitting proudly on the top of the table with 10 points from a possible 12 and with Keith Walwyn leading the way as the Third Division's "Hot Shot" with seven goals to his name already. The programme was a little strange in that, despite showing the result and team line up from City's fifth game, a 2-0 defeat at Gillingham, the Division Three table (shown on the same page!) hadn't been updated with the result of that game. Manager of the Month for August, Denis Smith's programme notes also acknowledged the defeat against Gillingham as well as anticipating the arrival of Chelsea in the League Cup 2nd Round, 1st Leg the following Tuesday (this was after City had eliminated Second Division Sunderland in the 1st Round). Surprisingly (to me at least) tickets were still available for that match against Chelsea and indeed it was possible to pay on the night for a place on the terraces.
Sadly there was no programme cover photograph of featured player Simon Mills (all of City's home programmes for that season carried a generic cover which was overprinted with the details for each match). Mills had joined York from Sheffield Wednesday the previous season and would go on to make 126 appearances for the Minstermen scoring 8 goals before moving on to Port Vale in December 1987. Mills had been voted as City's Clubman of the Season in his first season with the club. Mills was destined to finish his professional career at Vale and, across six seasons, he went on to make 218 appearances for Vale scoring 8 goals.
Bury, managed by Martin Dobson had made a faltering start to the season and were in 23rd place (out of 24) after two draws from their opening four games. Former Leeds United and Wales midfielder Brian Flynn appeared in Bury's line-up against City as did another former Leeds player Carl Harris (who scored in the first football match that I ever attended). Not appearing for Bury that night was Bury's promising young defender Lee Dixon who had just moved on to Stoke City. Sitting alongside Dobson in the Bury dugout was physiotherapist and former City manager Wilf McGuinness who, I recall, attempted to ingratiate himself with the home fans by giving out sweets. Sadly for McGuinness, few had forgotten the terrible job that he had done a decade earlier leading City to two successive relegations and few were interested in his glacier mints perhaps thinking that they were suppositories?
Smith's programme notes from that subsequent Chelsea game referred to York's performance against Bury as being "as bad a performance as we have given for a long time". Happily, despite their performance, City nevertheless collected all three points against Bury with a 1-0 victory following a first half goal scored by Derek Hood.
Sadly, York's upward progression under the management of Denis Smith ended that season as York slid down the table and ended up in 20th place, just one place outside of the bottom four relegation positions. Smith departed that Summer and was replaced by Bobby Saxton who would take York back down into the Fourth Division the following season. Smith departed Bootham Crescent for Sunderland, who had been newly relegated to the third tier for the first time in their history, and he guided them to the Third Division title at the first attempt the following season. Bury ended the season above York up in 16th position. AFC Bournemouth were Third Division champions that season and Middlesbrough and Swindon Town were also promoted as runners-up and Play-Off winners respectively. Bolton Wanderers, Carlisle United, Darlington and Newport County were the four relegated clubs.
CRB Match No. 453
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