Match programme: York City v Bournemouth (6 March 1974)

About this match programme

By Richard Snowball

After two seasons consolidating their position in Division Three under manager Tom Johnson, York City were pushing for promotion in the 1973-74 season.

On March 6, 1974, they faced a tough match against fellow promotion hopefuls Bournemouth who had been struggling in recent weeks. Even so, a hard encounter was expected.

York had lost only three of the 30 matches they had played and they put on another superb performance with a stunning 4-1 victory.

Goals from Chris Topping, Chris Jones, Jimmy Seal and a Barry Lyons penalty saw off their south coast rivals in front of an excited Bootham Crescent crowd of 10,392.

York City repeated the treatment three weeks later in the return match at Bournemouth with 3-1 win.

At the end of the season, York achieved their goal of gaining promotion to Division Two by finishing third, only one point behind Champions Oldham Athletic.

This was the first season of three up and three down in the top three divisions. They could possibly have been champions if they had won a key home game with Oldham just before the end of the season, but they were held to a 1-1 draw in front of season's largest crowd of 15,583.

Acknowledgement

This facsimile of the match programme was created by the publisher of There’s Only One Arthur Bottom, the daily email newsletter for fans of York City FC, and TOOAB contributors Richard Snowball, Terry Espiner and Paul Bowser.

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