Today I'm going back 42 years to 1980 and York City's Fourth Division fixture against Port Vale at Bootham Crescent. The official attendance at the game was just 2,025.
One name in the York line-up that day sticks out for me. Diminutive Scotsman Alistair (or Ally) Millar made his fourth of just 12 appearances for York City without scoring, all in 1980. His principal professional club was Barnsley where he appeared 289 times in the Football League (scoring 17 goals) between 1971-1980. Remember him? Sadly I don't, but players such as Ally are every bit as much part of York's history as those players with two or three hundred appearances to their name.
Port Vale's stand out name was Neville Chamberlain who arrived at Bootham Crescent with a piece of paper in his hand, signed by Adolf Hitler that meant "peace in our time"... oh hang on. No, that was the other Neville Chamberlain. The one at Bootham Crescent that day wasn't the inventor of snooker, nor the Bishop but was, in fact, the Port Vale forward who made 158 appearances scoring 41 goals between 1977-1982. This particular Neville is perhaps most famous for being the uncle of Liverpool and England's Alex Oxlade-Chamberlainelder as well as being the brother of Mark who made 8 appearances for England between 1982-1984.
York, managed by Barry Lyons, were 3-up by half-time in the featured game and ended up scoring four thanks to Ian McDonald (2), 19-year old John Byrne and Terry Eccles. Vale full-back Neil Griffiths scored their solitary consolation and Vale were well beaten on the day. Despite the result, York would go on to prop up the rest of the Football League by finishing in 92nd place (of 92) come the end of the season whilst Vale escaped the re-election zone finishing 19th (of 24). Southend United were champions of Division Four with Lincoln City, Doncaster Rovers and Wimbledon also promoted. Joining York in the bottom four were Tranmere Rovers, Hereford United and Halifax but all four were comfortably re-elected thankfully.
CRB Match No. 103
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