THE site for a new sports stadium in York is currently being discussed with the council and I must admit that the thought of leaving Bootham Crescent fills me with mixed feelings.

Obviously, I spent five years here as a coach and player and it's a smashing little ground. However, while the setting for York City Football Club might change, Bootham Crescent will always be remembered for all the great games that have been played here.

Every time I go on to the pitch now my mind still goes back to the Arsenal and Liverpool games, as well as the Championship season when we only lost here once. That season we were frighteningly good but even if the place is pulled down the memories will still be there.

I can remember 12,000 being packed in here for the Arsenal game and there was a brilliant atmosphere. You miss not being able to fill the stadium and that's why playing against Carlisle last Saturday with all their fans was a boost.

There was nearly 4,000 instead of 2,500 and having lots of supporters behind both goals adds spice to games.

Everybody should love playing in front of big crowds and we have got to be aiming at getting 4,000 of our own fans to home matches.

It would be nice to think that we could fill a new stadium and moving grounds is now a matter of progress in football. If you look at what other clubs in the country are doing a lot of new stadiums are being built. Some people are for it and some are against it.

I was at Sunderland when the plans were being drawn up to move to Roker Park. I left a couple of years before the move to the Stadium of Light but was there for the first match summarising for the television.

There was a lot of opposition towards moving away from Roker Park at the time because it was a fantastic ground that generated a great sound and atmosphere but now I think the Sunderland fans are really proud of the new stadium.

Having said that, some of the games at Roker Park were pretty special when 40,000 fans were crammed in.

I also played at Newcastle in a Boxing Day match against Sheffield United before St James' Park was modernised and that was an amazing occasion.

In complete contrast, I've played in the Houston Astrodome for Tulsa in America and there were 100,000 empty seats with just 5,000 fans watching. My ex-wife was sat in the back row and could not even pick me out on the pitch.

It was a magnificent stadium that would have been full for American football but the atmosphere was one of the worst I had experienced as a footballer.

Tulsa was better. We used to get 20,000 home crowds and you would get all the razzmatazz.

People would be having barbecues and there was more going on before the game than during it.

You would never get that type of crowd over here and I'm glad our supporters are not the same as in Greece either.

When I was a coach in Athens we went to one particular stadium where the crowd were famous for how volatile and hostile they were. My wife and baby wanted to go to that match but the president told me it was not the game that you took your family to and I'm glad I listened because it took us two hours to get out after the game.

Their fans were throwing ice, buckets and coins at us and anything else they could get their hands on. They were lunatics and the dug-outs were built underneath the stand like caves so they could not get at you.

I suppose every ground has its own character but, even when the time comes to leave Bootham Crescent, the history and achievements there will never be forgotten and I hope that I will be one of the first to step in to the new ground.

Updated: 10:43 Thursday, December 02, 2004