DESPITE a 16,000-mile round trip and shelling out £15,000 to see their team fail to score a goal in three hours of football, long-distance York City supporters the Williams family will be back again next season.

Los Angeles-based John and his two sons Jack and David face an 11-hour flight back across the Atlantic this week having witnessed a 4-0 Capital One Cup drubbing by Burnley and the 0-0 League Two draw with Hartlepool – a match in which the Minstermen could not muster a single shot on target.

Both performances were scant reward for the City fanatics, following their latest annual pilgrimage that also saw them sponsor both fixtures.

There were few complaints, however, from Tang Hall Lane-born Williams senior, who is already planning his brood’s next visit.

A Bootham Crescent regular between 1956 and 1966 before emigrating, the retired aerospace engineer is just delighted to see his club back in Football League action.

On the games and his long-standing love affair with City, he said: “I thought we held our own against Burnley until they scored their well-taken goals in the second half but the team were pushing forward by then and got caught and opened up.

“Against Hartlepool, I think it was a case of two teams trying not to lose but we thoroughly enjoyed both games and just love come here. I used to always want to go and see City as a boy.

“They are my home-town team. My sons were born and bred in America but I’ve taken them to so many games now that they are fans as well.

“We will be back again next season and will be looking to fit in as many games as we can.”

Like their father, Jack, 35, and David, 27, are also big baseball, American football and ice hockey fans, as well as being season-ticket holders at LA Galaxy.

But Williams senior admits the matchday experience at sporting events in the States is no comparison for what the family enjoys in North Yorkshire.

“Galaxy’s local derby is against San Francisco which is 500 miles away so you don’t get away fans, whereas Hartlepool brought 1,700 last weekend,” he explained.

“The atmosphere is so different at games. You don’t get any singing or banter between supporters.

“Bootham Crescent is also very intimate. You are right on top of the play and can actually hear the players jump and land.

“In America, you are so much further from the playing area and don’t get any of that.”

Wembley Stadium is rarely noted for its intimacy, either, but the Williams clan were never going to miss seeing City play on the world-famous hallowed turf twice during those nine magical days in May 2012.

Flights for the family, at such short notice, cost $3,500 alone, before the cost of tickets and hotel accommodation in London were factored in but seeing City lift the FA Trophy and then gain promotion back to the Football League in the play-off final was worth every penny to the head of the family.

“We had to come back for that,” he reasoned. “It was so exciting and will never happen again on successive weekends.”

The victories also compensated for a missed opportunity 59 years ago.

Having been born during World War II to a York-born mother and a father from Coventry, who was flying bomber planes out of Richmond, Williams left his home city behind at an early age, living for a spell in the Midlands before moving to Yeovil.

His affinity for City never diminished, however, largely due to his mother and a year before the family’s return north, then schoolboy Williams followed the Happy Wanderers’ famous 1955 FA Cup heroics from his parents’ Somerset base.

“I listened to the semi-final game on the radio and my mum promised that we would go to Wembley if we got there so I was so disappointed when Newcastle beat us in the replay,” he recalled.

A season later, he started watching his team from the terraces until the age of 24 when a work opportunity saw him head for Montreal.

He also lived in Seattle for a spell before settling in California, where he and his wife, who has since sadly passed away, raised their family.

Despite his exile, the Williams’ family connections with the club were retained when his nephew Richard played alongside future England goalkeeper Paul Robinson in the same York City boys team during the 1990s.

Retirement has also enabled Williams to bring his sons over to watch City for the last six years with the trio sponsoring matches on their last three trips.

“We’ve done that because we want to support the club,” explained the Williams supremo.

“There is no point in us buying season tickets, so this is a way that we can contribute the equivalent amount of money.”

Lone star on the rise LANRE Oyebanjo has climbed to the top of The Press Player of the Year and Player of the Month standings.

The right-back claimed two points towards both contests as our second-highest rated player during last weekend’s 0-0 draw with Hartlepool.

That haul moved Oyebanjo, pictured, above the absent David McGurk in the yearly leaderboard and Ashley Chambers in the monthly competition.

Oyebanjo extended his advantage over Chambers by receiving a share of the two bonus Player of the Month points on offer after he and Ben Davies polled the most man-of-the-match votes from internet and Twitter respondents.

To be in with a chance of presenting the August Player of the Month with a framed photograph before a City home game, vote for your man of the match from today’s game at Bristol Rovers on this website or tweet your choice to @daveflettpress

The Press Player of the Year latest standings: Oyebanjo 6 points, McGurk 5, Smith 5, Chambers 4, Clay 3, Davies 1.

The Press Player of the Month standings: Oyebanjo 9, Chambers 7, McGurk 5, Smith 5, Clay 3, Davies 2, Fyfield 1.

Goals: Jarvis 1.

Assists: Cresswell 1.

Bad boys: Clay one yellow card, Coulson one yellow, Cresswell one yellow, Montrose one yellow, Oyebanjo one yellow, Platt one yellow, Smith one yellow.