Omens good for City band on run (From York Press)

Omens good for City band on run

8:20am Saturday 24th December 2011 in Diary By Dave Flett, Sports reporter

MONDAY’S defeat to Kidderminster Harriers might have brought a disappointing end to York City’s unbeaten run but Gary Mills and his players should still take some solace from providing the club’s longest spell without a league loss for more than a quarter of a century.

Mills’ team’s 12-game undefeated sequence was the best since Denis Smith oversaw eight victories and five draws, spread over the 1985/86 and 86/87 campaigns.

The last team, meanwhile, to better this terms’s achievements within a single league season was Smith’s record-breaking 1983/84 side, who went 14 matches without being beaten on their way to accumulating 101 points and claiming the old fourth division title.

During the non-League era, the 12-game mark is one better than the previous record shared by sides managed by Colin Walker and Martin Foyle.

Walker did not taste defeat during his first 11 fixtures after taking charge at Bootham Crescent following Billy McEwan’s sacking while Foyle emulated that feat on the way to securing a play-off place in 2009/10.

In total, when taking into consideration more than 82 years of professional football in York, only four teams have gone more than 12 games of a league campaign without losing and all of them have gone on to win promotion.

Tom Johnston’s history-making side, still the only City team to secure a place in the second-highest tier of English football, went 21 games and more than four months without experiencing defeat in the old third division between September 1973 and January 1974.

That benchmark has remained unopposed ever since, having replaced the 16-game target set by Johnston’s 1970/71 fourth division promotion winners in the history books.

Smith’s title winners, meanwhile, along with Sam Bartram’s 1958/59 fourth division outfit – the first to clinch promotion for City – both managed to go 14 matches between defeats. The Bartram side also managed another 12-game streak that campaign, while Tom Lockie’s 1964/65 team went up from the old fourth division having enjoyed an unbeaten dozen-game run too.

In fact, the only City team not to have won promotion with an undefeated run of 12 games or greater in a season is the class of 1929/30, who went on to finish sixth in the third division north table.

None of those sides, however, were only contesting one automatic promotion place, as the Minstermen are again this season.

Anybody still lamenting Monday’s loss might also be well advised to recall the events of Christmas 2001.

This week marked the tenth anniversary of former owner Douglas Craig’s announcement that he was putting the club up for sale, triggering a series of events that would place City’s very existence in peril.

The Minstermen were losing £24,000 a week at the time and racking up annual operating losses approaching £1 million.

Delivering an early warning as to what it might take for him to relinquish his ownership of Bootham Crescent, Craig also told the then Evening Press: “You have to put a realistic value on the ground and look at what price land has gone for generally. But why should Bootham Crescent Holdings sell to somebody for peanuts, who could then sell it on for much more than peanuts?”

Flamingo Land co-owner Gordon Gibb and local businessman Adam Sinclair, who is currently opposed to the proposed new community stadium at Monks Cross, both declared an early interest in taking over from Craig but, as the Save City Evening Press campaign was launched with a hastily-arranged public meeting at the Tempest Anderson Hall in Museum Gardens, it quickly became apparent that the formation of a Supporters’ Trust would be the club’s only hope for salvation.

Craig eventually accepted £1,084,000 as the club bought back their home with the aid of a loan from the Football Foundation, while his fellow Bootham Crescent Holdings directors Barry Swallow and Colin Webb pocketed £172,661 each.

City must now hope that the New Year can finally lay that ghost from the club’s Christmas past to rest with a positive decision from the City of York Council’s planning committee and a successful promotion onslaught.

Blair flair play lands Press monthly gong

MATTY Blair has won The Press Player of the Month award for December ahead of the Boxing Day trip to Mansfield.

The 21-year-old attacker is eight points clear of his nearest rival Jamal Fyfield going into the Field Mill clash, giving him an unassailable lead in this month’s standings.

Blair received two points towards the contest as out second-highest rated player during Monday’s 3-2 home defeat to his old team Kidderminster.

He also collected the two Player of the Month bonus points on offer to the player who polled the most man-of-the-match votes from visitors to our website.

James Meredith was The Press man of the match against Kiddy, earning him three points for the Player of the Year and Player of the Month competitions.

Our third-highest rated player Ashley Chambers received the remaining point on offer.

Blair’s December efforts have also seen him move joint second with Scott Kerr on the Player of the Year leaderboard.

To be in with a chance of presenting Blair with his Player of the Month prize before a City home game, vote for your man of the match from the Boxing Day game at Mansfield Town.

The Press Player of the Year standings: Walker 28 points, Blair 15, Kerr 15, Fyfield 13, Ingham 13, McLaughlin 13, Meredith 13, Chambers 12, McGurk 10, Moké 9, Challinor 7, Smith 7, Oyebanjo 6, Boucaud 5, Henderson 1, Parslow 1, Reed 1.

December Press Player of the Month standings: Blair 15, Fyfield 7, McGurk 6, McLaughlin 5, Meredith 3, Challinor 1, Chambers 1, Ingham 1, Parslow 1.

Goals: Walker 15, Chambers 8, McLaughlin 8, Blair 7, Reed 6, Challinor 3, Moké 2, Pilkington 2, Ashikodi 1, Boucaud 1, Fyfield 1, McGurk 1, own goal 1, Smith 1.

Assists: Chambers 10, McLaughlin 9, Blair 6, Meredith 6, Moké 6, Walker 5, Kerr 4, Pilkington 3, Potts 2, Challinor 1, Henderson 1, McGurk 1, Oyebanjo 1, Reed 1, Smith 1.

Bad boys: McGurk 7 yellow cards; Boucaud, Walker both 1 red, 3 yellow; Blair, Kerr both 4 yellow; Challinor, McLaughlin, Meredith, Parslow, Smith all 3 yellow; Fyfield, Moké, Reed all 2 yellow; Ashikodi, Chambers, Ingham, Oyebanjo all 1 yellow.