Match programme: York City v Doncaster Rovers (8 April 1984)

About this match programme

By Richard Snowball

The 1983-84 season, Denis Smith's second as manager, turned out to be a recordbreaker.

He had re-built the team the previous season and consolidated the side’s position with a 6th-placed finish in Division Four.

The top of the table clash with Doncaster Rovers was played on Sunday April 8, 1984.

As expected, it turned out to be an exciting and hard fought game, ending honours even in a 1-1 draw. The match attracted the biggest crowd of the season - 11,297 and was the largest at Bootham Crescent for eight years.

York went on to win the League comfortably by 16 points, breaking several records in the process.

They became the first team in all four Divisions to accrue more than 100 points in a season since the introduction of three points for a win three years earlier, winning 31 and drawing 8 of their 46 matches and scoring 96 goals in the process (they totalled 100 including Cup matches).

They created another club record by winning 13 of their away games. They lost only one home match and finished with an identical record to the previous season winning 18, drawing 4 and one defeat.

John Byrne finished top goal scorer with 27 League and 1 Cup goal, followed by Keith Walwyn with 25 goals, the third season he had scored over 20.

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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