Today I'm going back 36 years to 1986 and York City's Third Division fixture against Rotherham United at Bootham Crescent, played in front of a crowd of 3,216.
In the Rotherham side that day was future Minsterman Kevan Smith. The vast majority of Smith's appearances in the League came for Darlington in two spells. His first spell ended when he moved to Rotherham United and from there he moved to Coventry City and was actually part of the Sky Blues FA Cup Final squad in 1987 although he did not play. After just half a dozen top flight games for Coventry, York secured Smith's services and he would make 31 Football League appearances for York (scoring 5 goals) before returning to Darlington for a second stint. Another future York player in the Rotherham side was Phil Crosby who made 25 appearances in the Football League for York in 1991/92 and the programme's Rotherham team photograph also showed Ray Warburton who would go on to play for City but didn't feature in this match.
After 16 matches (12 Football League and 4 in the League Cup), just three ever-presents remained in York's line-up: goalkeeper Andy Leaning, Derek Hood and Tony Canham, all of whom played in the featured match too. Keith Walwyn was shown in the programme as being in third place in the list of Division 3's "Hot Shots" with 9 goals, just behind Middlesbrough's Archie Stephens (10 goals) and the leader, Port Vale's Andy Jones (11 goals). Also featured in the programme was full-back Steve Senior who, it was stated, had a personal target to top 200 first team matches for City. At the end of the season Senior was transferred to Northampton Town, but not before clocking up his 206th appearance for the Minstermen (scoring 7 goals).
The programme contained a photograph of Dale Banton in action with Rotherham's goalkeeper Kelham O'Hanlon and in that earlier game, Banton was one of the scorers in York's 2-1 win. O'Hanlon must therefore have had a strong feeling of deja vu as York came from behind to win this game 2-1 too! Rotherham, managed by Norman Hunter, had a halftime lead thanks to a goal by Paul Haycock but two second half goals scored by Keith Walwyn and Banton gave Denis Smith's York side all the points. The victory must have been something of a relief for everyone connected with York as it ended a poor run of form yielding one draw and four defeats over the previous five games (although one of these was against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge).
The Denis Smith golden-era at York came to an end at the end of the season and Smith left the club having narrowly avoided relegation, finishing 20th (of 24). Rotherham United finished in mid-table (14th). Third Division champions that season were AFC Bournemouth with Middlesbrough and Swindon Town also being promoted. Relegated that season were Bolton Wanderers, Carlisle United, Darlington and Newport County.
CRB Match No. 460
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