*Warning if you are of a nervous disposition never join this thread, the roller coaster this season is guaranteed to be will not be good for you, check out our first 3 games* For anyone who's interested what conference life is like for a long suffering fan, whether you're English, American or somewhere else I will be keeping this thread updated with my feelings all season for the club I love for no logical reason. This is my 10th season as a season ticket holder and so fan I've seen 2 relegations, 0 promotions and just 1 playoff appearance, best FA cup run was the fourth round and I've never seen us win anything.... ever. Last season we made the playoffs and were awful against Morecambe. This season we've recruited well and before the opening game last week optimism was high... YORK 1 - 2 Cambridge Basically this is the kind of game I've got used to as a York fan. Take the lead, a penalty down at the other end, I couldn't see it clearly, looked about the right decision to me and Farrell scores. Then in the second half we see the real Farrell, fluffs a great chance and down the other end Cambridge score because we don't clear it. Then a corner is cleared, the ref blows his whistle and the Cambridge fans start to cheer the ref sends Stuart Elliot (a new summer signing who looks a complete psycho and nothing more) off for an elbow on Leo Fortune-West (which should be made legal IMO) and of course Lee Boylan tucks home the penalty for them. We look OK late on but never genuinely threaten and lose. Burton 4 - 3 YORK For anyone who doubted the idiocity of me take a look at this game. 3-1 up vs 10 men with 10 minutes to go, we lose it 4-3. I wonder why I bother, I really do, I didn't go I was in Holland, thank god. Exeter 1 - 1 YORK Didn't go again but the wonders of Broadband Setanta mean I watched the game today, appaling penalty decision, clearly got the ball for us to go 1-0 down and late on a new signing Onome Sodje scored his second of the season to level, great result really. So three games and just one point, I'm still confident that with 41 games and 124 points to play for we can do fine and challenge for something, playoffs may be the only thing realistic. Forest Green at home Friday night, and then I'm going to Northwich aswell on Monday. I'm a glutton for punishment. Hopefully I can create some new York fans with this thread, or some people will enjoy reading my pain! If anyone wants any info just ask.
That's a pretty tough opening set of fixtures though. Cambridge are doing well and all three stand a pretty good chance of being near the top come April.
Aye, Leo Fortune-West maybe a complete tosspot but he's effective, we shoulda pissed Burton and you just have to look at the penalty that went against us against Exeter, we've not had too bad a start IMO. Forest Green will be well organised under an experienced manager and won't be easy to beat. Neil Redfearn's Northwich will be a piece of piss with a bit of luck.
I hate this sport, pathetic performance against Forest Green who just turned up and were gifted 3 points. No spirit, no talent, no effort, no point in me wasting an evening going. Still, because I'm a complete eejit Im going to Northwich on monday.
Northwich Victoria V York City I was closer than I'd like to admit to not bothering with this game but with some beautiful logic (Northwich are even worse than us at the moment) I made the trip over the Pennines and, just about, was rewarded for doing so. At half time I was questioning my sanity, sat in an ugly warehouse modern ground watching the team I love play cluelessly and one of our best players, Craig Farrell, warming up whilst the wasters on the pitch struggle to contend with Neil Redfearn's amatuers or whatever they are. Second half the York away following get their wish as Farrell comes on and the game changes, we're on top but don't really force the fat keeper of Northwich who only gets a game cos his Dad's chairman, Connett, to make a save. Fortunately as time ran down Martyn Woolford got some room on the left wing and swung in a great cross and former Northwich player, Paul Brayson, volleyed into the bottom corner. Honestly it's on of the most excited sets of fans I've ever been in, more relief than anything and despite a very, very poor performance we went home happy as 1-0 winners. Things will have to improve as we prepare to face Rushden on Thursday (if you've got Setanta watch it! ) but it's a huge weight of the lads backs to get the first win and Rushden are playing badly at the moment too so there's no reason we can't continue and hopefully get some kind of run going.
How's Paul Brayson looking these days? Back in the days when Tommy Burns had a managerial career at Reading that was disastrous in Titantic proportions, he was a striker for us. Without be too unkind, he was one of those players who was so bad that he went beyond being booed, and was just looked upon with a kind of resigned sympathy. 1 goal in 42 games says it all really. It's strangely comforting to see him carve out a career elsewhere. ps, strange as it may seem, there are loads of Reading fans saying how much they miss going to places like York (even if it wasn't exactly as if thousands took the opportunity to do so when they had the chance) as a curious disillusionment with premiership life kicks in. I only went to York once, for a night game in 1994. I liked York's ground, even if we did lose 0-1 and missed a late penalty.
Ahah! I'm glad someone has the good taste to open a York City thread. Tough start to our season thus far huh? Now we lose to Rushden? Damn.
RichardL- Brayson looks ok but I'm not sure he'll take a club out of this league as a starting striker. Great finish against Northwich to get us our first win of the season but 2 bad misses last night (despite playing well and setting up one goal) and the fact he doesn't put his head on anything that may slightly hurt means the jury's very much out. Improving every game but before his strike at Northwich a common comparison was to someone in a coma... CrazyDCFan- We didn't play 'too' badly... as such. We played some wonderful football but the finishing was terrible, Farrell and Brayson in particular missed some great chances, we should have scored at least 5 easily. And sadly 2 solid players last year, Evans and McGurk have made horrible starts to the year and look half the player they used to be, Evans refuses to come off his line and McGurk loses the ball all the time. I'm still confident we can turn the season around. Last night we would have beaten anyone in the league but for 3 defensive/goalkeeping lapses and some terrible finishing. Woolford looked dynamite on the wing and Elliot and Panther dominated the midfield. Altrincham on Tuesday night should be worse than us.
I was going to give a nice full report on tonights debacle against Altrincham but quite frankly, I can't be arsed. We didn't even play that badly but giving away a corner is as bad as giving away a penalty for us at the moment. 2-2 against Altrincham is a piss take. Well done Brodie and Brayson for scoring, in fact the team did fine but if we can't defend set pieces whats the point? Every corner/wide free kick they won the header and came close a few times. Clueless ref was terrible both ways, more against us but he dissalowed a goal comically for them, and the fattest linesman ever managed to miss our keeper mis-control a ball out for a corner despite him being right where it happened. They had NO chances all game bar set pieces which, like I said, are as good as penalties. Sort that out and we can challenge anyone in this league, but it's been a problem for weeks so it's not gonna happen. Kidderminster on Saturday... thank god I can't get there.
Anyone who's interested there's highlights of last nights game http://www.york.tv/news.asp?story=232 ^^^ There Also if you run a team you can train defenders for "how not to defend set pieces", our second goal was amazing. Also it might be worth pointing out that the goal that they had dissalowed the ref hd signalled play on so we got VERY lucky.
Look at these stats: Shots on target: York 8, Altrincham 5 Shots off target: York 6, Altrincham 3 Corners: York 5, Altrincham 6 Sounds like City dominated but just couldn't put the game away. Anyway, a disappointing start to say the least given how all the pundits were picking York to finish 4th or thereabouts. I've been keeping up with the "Arthur Bottom" newsletter and nobody seems to know why Yorkie's crying in his lager right now.
Clayton Donaldson leaving for Hibs was a bigger blow than a lot of people anticipated. Imagine he and Sodje up top...scary...
Definately Donaldson leaving was a huge thing. The problem is we're playing Brodie up front, he's young and in a few years he has the potential to be very effective for us. Sadly though he can't do what Donaldson could, namely go past people on the halfway line and run through to score, at any given moment. Brodie's had a lot of criticism, he's clearly limited at this stage of his career but I think he's winning people over, he's hard-working, very raw but he's getting goals now and looking more dangerous, IF he could make it and achieve what he may be able to he could become a hero at York but for now he shouldn't be in the first team, he should be training hard, playing in the reserves and learning his trade. Clearly Billy has him down as his own personal project and wants him to suceed. Sodje's the same in that he's not at his full potential yet. I'm not convinced he should start, I think he needs 20-30 minutes every game, I think that's how he's most effective, certainly no point starting him right wing like at Northwich. Sodje's not as quick as Donaldson but he's much stronger and once he sorts out his first touch and ball control he could be a star at this level. Every game Brayson improves and I think him + Beardsley (who's much better at this moment in time than Brodie as a big man up front) or Sodje, should be the 2 up front. Farrell's OK on the right wing but he shouldn't play through the middle because he can't finish and Woolford will always get on the scoresheet eveyr now and then, he's just very, very inconsistent and has too many anonymous games to be a star of this league. Panther won't be at the club much longer, he's a class above and it's obvious, Elliot's coming into his own in the middle now after a poor start aswell. To a man at the back we're fine, Robinson + Purkiss/Craddock is a fantastic pair of full backs and to say we're being forced to leave someone as good as Parslow on the bench means our centre backs should be great. Kelly's new and looks OK and McGurk's not started well this season at all but he's been a rock the last few so either give him some reserve games to get his form going whilst Parslow plays in the first team or keep him going and wait for him to come good, as I'm sure he will. Main problem is 'keeper. I think Evans' error in the playoff's has hit him hard, he's looked half the keeper he used to be so far this year, not coming off his line for anything, and the lad on loan, Henderson, is just young but looked OK on his debut. We'll see how things go tommorow. It's great that there are a couple (maybe more hidden in the shadows?! ) people here who are York fans aswell, makes for a much more interesting thread.
What's the league below the Confer... er, the "Blue Square Premier"? I just want to know where City will be playing next year. I hope to get to York sometime this season so I can see City again while they're still in professional football.
Conference North. I think there are a small number of full time clubs at that level, though I'm not entirely sure about the list.
We won't go down. There are too many absoloute non-entitities of football clubs at this level (Stafford, Northwich, Altrincham, Farsley etc) who will finish below us just based on the fact we have a few decent players and, relatively, large support, we WILL pick things up, this is not based on my blind support but just realistically the teams in this league who are bad are very, very, bad. Blind optimism supporting would say we are capable of going on a run and making the playoffs, to be fair the league as a whole is so weak this year it's not impossible after this start but we're simply not good enough. I'd say just in the top half 10th, 11th or somewhere abouts is what we're looking at this year. My worry however is that we've not pushed on, as we've done every year with Billy Mac so far, and that next years squad will be a similar lottery as to whether players come in and do better than past years. I'm not some ignorant, blind, rose tinted glasses type, at least not with this. We may be poor but in this league there are plenty of worse teams. We matched Stevenage but they scored 2 good goals and we missed 2 good chances. I'm not saying a home defeat to Stevenage is an acceptable result but we're not one of the worst teams in this league. We WILL pick up points over the course of the season where some of the dire teams won't, we're probably not good enough for a genuine playoff threat and probably never were but this season shouldn't be too uncomfortable relegation wise. That said things don't look like snapping into place week on week, if they don't sooner rather than later we'll be looking nervously over our shoulders. Beat Alderpot this week, go to Grays and turn them over and we'll be sorted. Shame that's not gonna happen but I'm an eternal optimist, I have to be.
I've been looking at the current table and even if we win in eight straight matches and Stevenage lose eight straight, we will only be up by four points. That is utterly depressing. Sack Billy? Yes, pessimism is in this thread as well.
Hopefully not, but we're not going up either and so less than a quarter of the way into the season the best we can reasonably hope for is midtable security when everyone was picking us to challenge for promotion. Ugh.
2-0 win at Grays today, they went down to 10 men after 20 minutes, we missed the penalty, then Sodje scored, Brodie got sent off, Elliot scored, Robinson got sent off and we hung on. Nice boost, I'd say this is us getting back on track but I thought that against Northwich. Then again Brodie will be missing for a game or two so we might just start to play well!
Altrincham, Droylsden, Northwich and Stafford are four good reasons why you won't go down. Throw in Farsley plus possible financial issues at a couple of others, York will be fine (though not going up).
Exactly, we're a competant team and there are those 5 who are completely dire non-entities and they'll battle for the relegation places. This league is so weak this year it's scary. If us, or Exeter, Oxford, Morecame probably Burton aswell had their team from last year this time they'd be top. Good win last Saturday away so lets hope we can follow that up, however we do have a ridiculously large amount of players injured/suspended, and Halifax won't be easy. Exactly how he'll get players into certain positions I'm not sure but I think we've got 2 forwards fit, a left mid, 2 centre mids, a right mid, 2 centre back and 2 right backs, so I presume one of our right backs will have to play left back and we'll pray we get no injuries. Hopefully we've turned a corner but I thought we had after Northwich so I'll reserve judgement until after Thursday night!
Well, it certainly wasn't easy against Hailfax but wow, what a comeback! I'm not ready to declare us promotion candidates again just yet, but life sure looks better after a six point gain.
It was a bizarre match. Up until they went 2-0 up it was probably the wors tI've ever seen city play, no passion, no skill, no hope. Henderson had a shocker for the first goal (but aside from that was perfect all night). Then out of the blue we strung a good move together, Brayson (who's quickly becoming a class act in York shirt) kept strong in the area and Sodje knocked it in. Minutes later and again Brayson stays strong and sets up Woolford. The Shippo end went absooutely mental, as you can imagine, from there even me, as negative a fan as you'll ever meet, thought we were the more likely to get a winner. Admittedly they missed a sitter from a corner, how it stayed out I have no idea, even having seen it on Setanta Broadband archives! Brayson and Sodje were again involved with the third, Brayson played a perfect backheel into Sodje's path and he squared it for Alex Meechan (who?! ) to score his first goal in I think only his second appearance. If we play like we did after 55 odd minutes every game we'll win the league from here... sadly it's not gonna happen. But with Oxford stuck in a rut there's no reason we can't gothere and win this Sunday.
Wait until you beat someone decent Not very happy with this result, especially since we were two goals up.
Today's match against Farsley Celtic is being streamed live at 19:45 GMT on: http://livefooty.doctor-serv.com/ Go to the bottom, click the link, and follow the directions! Viva La Ciudad! Hmmm, I wonder if you would ever hear THAT in Yorkshire.