YORK City’s season came to a cruel end as they failed to deliver in the Vanarama National League play-offs – falling to a 3-0 defeat to Oldham Athletic.
It’s an abrupt end to what has been an incredible season for Adam Hinshelwood’s York side, amassing 96 points in the normal league season and finishing second, only behind Barnet.
So for City to fall at the first hurdle in the play-offs, it feels uncharacteristic and sudden, especially in the manner of which they did crash out of the semi-final.
A mistake had allowed Joe Garner to rifle a strike home early on, before a quickfire double in the second-half gave Oldham welcome breathing room to secure a trip to the capital.
A first Wembley final since 2017 would have awaited for the Minstermen, as well as a play-off final with the winner heading to the Football League.
Instead, they will remain in the Vanarama National League, and will play in the fifth tier for a fourth straight season.
Oldham had been drawn as York’s opponents for the semi-final after a fifth versus sixth battle, when they welcomed FC Halifax Town to Boundary Park last Wednesday.
They had proven worthy of their progression into the semi-final too, powering to an incredible 4-0 victory over Halifax, having eased into a 3-0 lead just 12 minutes into the contest.
For York, it had been 15 days since their last appearance, which was a 2-0 win on the road at Eastleigh.
Adam Hinshelwood had raised no problems towards concerns about rustiness, with his team taking part in in-house friendlies at the LNER Community Stadium in their preparation for this evening.
The York boss had caused quite the scare pre-match too, having potentially played mind games by admitting concerns over Ollie Pearce’s condition after a reported hamstring injury.
His team news did bring some needed relief, with Pearce starting, but it also brought a surprise with Adam Crookes absent from the squad in its entirety.
Dipo Akinyemi was his replacement, which saw Tyrese Sinclair drop to right-back as Joe Felix remained in midfield, and Malachi Fagan-Walcott shifted back to centre-back.
Hinshelwood had also spoken on his belief that Oldham would not change anything for this match after their hammering of Halifax, and he would be correct.
The Latics named an unchanged team whilst being backed by over 1,500 supporters in North Yorkshire.
Tensions were high pre-match, as they would be for any National League contest, so there would be hope that an early goal could quickly settle those nerves.
It would not come for City however, whilst the nerves were clear throughout the 11 in the opening 45.
It showed early on as Cam John had a hopeful pass for Akinyemi far too heavy for the winger, which allowed the Latics to build forward.
The move would eventually fall to the feet of Vimal Yoganathan on the edge of the area, who sliced an effort over the bar despite having space.
The first real scare for the Minstermen came when another dangerous long throw-in from Oldham was flicked goalwards by Joe Garner, and forced a goal line clearance by makeshift right-back Sinclair.
But disaster would strike minutes later as it proved that Sinclair’s clearance was only delaying the inevitable, with York being the cause of their own downfall.
Some pressure on the City back line inside their own box saw the loose ball drop to Garner on the edge of the box, who lashed a fierce strike beneath Harrison Male to make it 1-0 to the visitors.
York were unable to spend for the rest of the half too, with Pearce coming closest when having a free-kick on the edge of the area ricochet away from the wall.
City then had Male to thank for not allowing Oldham breathing room, as Mike Fondop was allowed the room to launch a half-volley at goal, which was expertly parried over the crossbar by the York shot-stopper.
Any hopes of one of York’s traditional late goals or second-half comebacks would quickly be squashed just four minutes into the second 45, as City suffered a disastrous start.
After the Minstermen’s backline failed to deal with a loose ball on two occasions, it was able to be brought down by Fondop inside the area.
He had the time to turn and lay it back to an unmarked Yoganathan, who rolled a driven an effort into Male’s bottom right corner.
And just one minute later, York’s play-off performance went from bad to worse.
Pushing down the right-wing, the Latics were able to launch a ball to the front post, where an unmarked Pritchard stood.
He was able to direct the ball again beyond Male, with City’s season coming to a humiliating end.
They were never able to pose the threat to get back into the contest either, coming closest when an Ashley Nathaniel-George teasing cross bounced across the face of goal, but couldn’t be met by Akinyemi.
That would prove to be the highlight of the evening for the sold-out home end, with York failing to register a shot on target in the match.
YORK CITY: MALE 6, SINCLAIR 5 (ARMSTRONG 6, 59), FAGAN-WALCOTT 5, HOWE 5, JOHN 5, HUNT 6 (BATTY 6, 75), FELIX 6, AKINYEMI 6 (LUAMBA 6, 59), RICHARDSON 6 (STONES 6, 59), NATHANIEL-GEORGE 6 (JOHN-LEWIS, 82), PEARCE 6
SUBS NOT USED: WATSON, CHADWICK
OLDHAM ATHLETIC: HUDSON, OGLE, RAGLAN, MONTHE, KITCHING, PRITCHARD, EVANS (ROSSITER, 85, YOGANATHAN (CONLON, 76), PETT, GARNER (NORWOOD, 79), FONDOP
SUBS NOT USED: DONAGHY, SUTTON, LUNDSTRAM, UCHEGBULAM
GOALS: GARNER (23), YOGANATHAN (49), PRITCHARD (50)
YORK’S STAR MAN: ASHLEY NATHANIEL-GEORGE. The best of a bad bunch on the day.
REFEREE: ZAC KENNARD-KETTLE
ATTENDANCE: 8,153
SHOTS (ON TARGET): 3 (0) | 12 (7)
CORNERS: 7 | 3
OFFSIDES: 2 | 4
FOULS: 4 | 8
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