LNER COMMUNITY STADIUM — York City’s season is 80 minutes old, they have not yet played a league match and most of their home stadium is mutinous. Some chant for the manager to be sacked; his tenure is only 80 minutes old too. Others simply lend their support to the bloke who was in charge the last time they were here.
It is a situation I have never experienced before. A fanbase was entirely overjoyed with their title-winning players and manager and all went off to bask in the summer glory. They have returned to a farce. York City broke records last season, but this is surely world-record pace for killing the mood?
Perhaps we should not be surprised. York City know chaos like few other football clubs in their new environment of the Football League. The last 10 years have brought a change of ownership, two different stadiums and 11 different managers, the longest-serving of whom only reached 91 matches in charge.
In that time, York suffered consecutive relegations to fall into the fifth tier. They finished second in two different divisions and then lost play-off matches without scoring against teams who finished below them. They took 204 points across consecutive seasons to reach the Football League. To repeat: it is never dull.
