League Two Lowdown: York City

Last updated : 04 August 2015 By Jim Bonner

Vital Statistics

Founded: 1922

Chairman: Jason McGill

Last Season: League Two - 18th 

Nickname: The Minstermen

Rivals: Scarborough, Scunthorpe United, Hull City

Major Honours

None

Scheduled Matches

Portsmouth vs York: Tuesday, November 24th (7:45pm)

York vs Portsmouth: Tuesday, April 19th (7:45pm)

York City: A brief history

The original York City were an amateur side formedin 1908 and played in local leagues before folding in 1917 during World War I. The club was reformed in 1922 and were elected to the Football League in 1929 where they would gain a reputation as cup giant killers despite their lowly league finishes.

The club yo-yoed between the bottom two divisions in the 60's and early 70's before finally getting promoted to Division Two and finishing in a club record 15th after the 1974/1975 season. It was all downhill from there as the club had been relegated back to the basement in 1977.

York won Division Four in 1984 and became the first team to break 100 points in the Football League. In recent years, the Minstermen were almost kicked out of the league when the owner put the club and ground for sale and York were relegated to the Conference in 2004, bouncing back to League Two in 2012 by beating Luton in the play-off final.

The Manager: Russ Wilcox

Wilcox's playing career saw him appear more than a hundred times for Northampton Town and later on, Scunthorpe where he would end his playing days and become Brian Laws's assistant, following him to Sheffield Wednesday, Burnley and then back to Scunthorpe after a brief stint as Lee Bradbury's assistant at Bournemouth.

When Laws was sacked from the Scunthorpe job again in November 2013, Wilcox took the top job and led the club to a 28-match unbeaten run, an English football record for games unbeaten by a new manager.

This run would ultimately see Scunthorpe promoted to League One but a poor start to the season saw him sacked after 7 points from 11 games. A week later he was announced as York's new manager following Nigel Worthington's resignation.

The Ground: Bootham Crescent (Capacity 7,872 - Away: 2,300)

The city of York is one of the most pleasant places in England which is full of tourist attractions and steeped in history. The same cannot be said for the football ground! Behind these turnstiles is an open terrace with toilet facilities that wouldn't look out of place at a North Korean gulag.

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The one redeeming feature of Bootham Crescent seems to be the fans that frequent it. It might have been down to Pompey's capitulation but the atmosphere at York was the best at an away day throughout all of the 2013/2014 season, with most of the noise coming from the fans stood in the David Longhurst stand.

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The Popular side has a steel gate which away fans can enter for the price of £1 so they get to sit in some covered seats rather than brave the terraces. It's a very old looking stand.

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The Main Stand looks just as old and you can see why some fans want to move to a new stadium although it faces opposition from other fans who like the character of their stadium situated in the actual city, rather than a plastic stadium built miles away.

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Overall, Bootham Crescent is one of the worst grounds in League Two in terms of facilities but it does have character and the fans are some of the best in the division. And as a bonus you can always spend the weekend in the city.