About this match programme
By Richard Snowball The 1992-93 season was proving to be York City’s best since Denis Smith left the club and manager John Ward had made some shrewd signing to strengthen his squad. However, Ward's success had been noticed by other clubs and in early March 1993, he was headhunted by Bristol Rovers and left the club. Coming into the home match against Bury, played on March 20, 1993, it was new manager Alan Little's second game in charge (he had won his first one 5-1 at Barnet the previous Saturday) so confidence was high. York were sitting in the third automatic promotion place and their opponents were down in ninth, but only one point off a play-off position. A crowd of 3,985 turned up to watch the game, which was virtually the average for the season, and they witnessed a very tight match with neither side wanting to drop vital points. It wasn't to be York City's day however as they lost 2-1 with Jon McCarthy scoring York's goal. By one of those co-incidences often thrown up in football, the following Tuesday night York went to Crewe, and lost again 3-1, with John McCarthy again the scorer. The rest is history; York finished fourth and Bury seventh with York winning the playoff over two legs, with Gary Swann scoring the only goal. They then went on to beat Crewe Alexandra at Wembley 5-3 on penalties, after playing out a 1-1 draw over 120 minutes, with Gary Swann again being York's goal scorer. These were the only two goals Swann scored all season. One of the season's new signings, Paul Barnes, finished top goal scorer with 21 League goals. 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. www.tooab.com