Match: v York City - Nationwide Football Conference

Date: Tuesday, October 10th 2006

Result: York 1 Cambridge United 2

THE JOURNEY

Departure Time: With traffic chaos in the morning thanks to the A14 being closed and Cambridge in a state of gridlock, I thought it best to bring the departure time forward to be on the safe side. We therefore set off at about 1.45pm.

Arrival at Ground: The roads had been in a similar state of disarray last season, which had made for a tortuous journey, and we were quite keen to avoid a repetition. But the earlier departure time had given the various authorities the chance to sort things out before we set off and the journey turned out to be even more straightforward than usual. In fact, we made such good progress that a very leisurely stop was needed en route to prevent us from getting to the ground even more unfashionably early than usual.

As it was, we parked close to the ground at about 5.30pm.

AT THE GROUND

The Ground: Bootham Crescent may once have been a Football League ground but however you dress it up - even with the application of a sponsored chocolate coating - it has an unmistakable non-League air.

Traditional, in the dilapidated sense of the word, seated areas run along either side of the pitch. The Main Stand has an arbitrary metal bar separating it into two distinct levels. The upper level is filled with flip-up wooden seats, while their plastic cousins fill the lower level.

The match day control box has been plonked in the back of the Main Stand, and while members of the written press are allocated benched seats that run in pairs down a barrier that runs from the front of this box to the metal dividing bar, the radio commentators have a less user-friendly environment.

Having found that the seat numbers indicated on our press tickets didn't actually exist, Steve Line and I positioned ourselves in the stygian gloom at the back of the stand next to a raised broadcast platform which was used by the local BBC and Hospital Radio commentators. It took a bit of shuffling about, but we eventually managed to find a couple of seats where the view wasn't too obscured by the obtrusive control box.

Opposite, a low stand of seats has faded to more shades of red than you might think possible, and United fans were offered seats at one end of this. Surprisingly, given the small number of people occupying it, this stand is called 'The Popular Side' - so maybe York City have a fine sense of irony.

To the right of the Main Stand, a covered terrace is in the shape of a Mesoamerican pyramid, while the away terrace behind the opposite goal is sans roof and is, of course, allocated to those away fans that eschew the opportunity to sit.

United Fans: Split between those who preferred to stand and those that perhaps wanted to use the roof of the seated area for acoustic purposes, they grew louder as the match progressed.

View from Away End: There seemed to be a trade off between standing up and getting a decent view from behind the goal and sitting down where the view was less impressive.

Home Fans: Happy enough to start with, they grumbled loudly when they lost the lead. There is a history between York fans and Paul Crichton, and their financial donations aimed in his direction during the second half were particularly generous.

Police/Stewards: Although there were plenty on duty, they didn't seem to find that much to occupy their time. Those we encountered, both outside the ground and on the way to the press area, were friendly and helpful.

Programme: £2.50 for 44 pages, many of which were black and white and even more of which contained adverts.

Articles were shoehorned in between the ads, and amongst the more interesting of these was one from the programme editor discussing the cost implications for the club due to the imbalance in the Conference between clubs in the north and south. However, it was suggested that a north/south divide at Conference level was not viable, as 'the south of England could not raise enough clubs of status to form an equal division'. I wonder if that view was still held at full time!

AFTERWARDS

The Journey Home: The one benefit of an evening fixture at York is that there is unlikely to be much traffic on the way home, so the A1 and A14 were a joy to drive.

Mileage: 325.0 miles

Total Distance for Season: 1,798.8 miles

Mark Johnson, with additional reporting by Gordon McMillan

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