YORK City’s current squad must now pick up back-to back wins during their next seven league fixtures to avoid becoming only the fourth team in the club’s history to go a full calendar year without achieving that modest feat.

Not since January 16 – when a 5-3 triumph at Telford actually represented a fifth straight National League North success – have the Minstermen managed to secure six points from a possible six.

City chief Sam Collins was convinced that proverbial monkey had been lifted off this group of players’ backs when they led 2-0 going into the last 20 minutes of Tuesday’s home match with a Leamington team who had only mustered one shot on target – an ambitious 45-yard lob – up to that point.

But Colby Bishop’s subsequent brace saw the Bootham Crescent outfit fail to build on last weekend’s 2-0 triumph over FC United of Manchester in a fashion that has become so frustratingly familiar over the last 11 months.

Collins’ side must now rack up consecutive victories at some point against upcoming league opponents Boston, Brackley, Darlington, Blyth, Darlington again, Curzon Ashton and Hereford to evade joining teams from 2017, 1988 and 1950, who have gone more than a year without successive successes.

The Hereford game, meanwhile, will not be played, as scheduled on January 12, if either club wins through to the second round of the FA Trophy next weekend.

Unsurprisingly, the ill-fated squads that Jackie McNamara put together, designed to, first, preserve the club’s Football League status, and, then, win it back with the non-League game’s third-biggest budget were largely responsible for the last time City went more than 12 months without two league wins on the bounce.

Following home victories over Notts County and Exeter in February 2016, City had to wait until April Fools’ Day 2017 for their next pair of straight league victories, with McNamara’s successor Gary Mills masterminding a 3-1 win at Macclesfield before his team beat Braintree 3-0 at Bootham Crescent.

It took less than a fortnight, meanwhile, to repeat the feat as a 2-0 win at Chester was followed up by a Good Friday victory over Solihull Moors, only for two points from a possible nine in the final three games to prove insufficient in the fight against relegation to the sixth tier.

Before that regrettable era, you have to trawl back three decades for a one-year plus run when a club record of 18-and-a-half months was set.

The sorry sequence began at the start of legendary manager Denis Smith’s final season in charge following September 1986 wins over Bristol Rovers and Port Vale and only ended when his successor Bobby Saxton managed to inspire defeats of Sunderland (2-1) and Bury (1-0) in April 1988 as the club tumbled back into the Football League’s basement division.

Before then, the club’s longest run without two league wins on the trot lasted 16 months and one day with Tom Mitchell’s bottom-of-the-half third division north outfit, who could call on the goalscoring heroics of Alf Patrick, overcoming Crewe (6-0) and Chester (2-0) in September 1948 and, then, waiting until January 1950 before doubling up for victories over Tranmere (1-0) and Halifax (2-1).

The pre and post-War period also saw the club fail to secure maximum points from back-to-back games between October 1938 during the final campaign before the outbreak of hostilities and December 1946 in the first season after peace had been declared, but the respective teams were obviously very different.

City’s attendance of 1,938 against Leamington was also the first league gate to drop below the 2,000 mark since relegation to National League North.

Furthermore, it was the lowest for more than two years since a crowd of 1,907 turned up for a midweek November home contest against Guiseley that finished 1-1 in the division above.

City are offering fans the chance, meanwhile, to play one last game at Bootham Crescent before next summer’s move to Monks Cross.

Groups can hire out the pitch and dressing rooms to play a 90-minute match on the hallowed turf with various dates available from May 13 to June 28, 2019.

Post-match food and drink is also available on request with additional charges applying.

The hire cost is £500 plus VAT for the full pitch with a maximum of 30 people.

Alternatively, half of the pitch is available for £350 plus VAT with a maximum of 20 people.

The pitch is available from 11am-1.30pm and 2.30pm-5pm from Monday to Sunday.

It can also be hired from 7pm-9.30pm from Monday to Friday.

Bookings can be made by contacting City’s Head of Partnerships Nick Greatrex on 01904 624447 or by emailing nick.greatrex@yorkcityfootballclub.co.uk

Full details can be found at https://www.yorkcityfootballclub.co.uk/news/commercial/play-pitch-next-summer