About this match programme
By Richard Snowball This programme is for York City’s F.A.Cup semi-final against Newcastle United played on March 26, 1955. The semi-final of the 1954-55 F.A. Cup is the biggest match in York City's history and 21,000 York fans travelled to Hillsborough, Sheffield by road and on numerous "cup special" trains put on by British Railways. The attendance of 65,000 is the largest crowd ever to have watched York City play a match. The weather was appalling with persistent heavy rain falling all morning and throughout the match and there were puddles on the pitch when the match started, (it would probably not have been played nowadays), but in those days pitches were never good in the winter months at the best of times. York had to make a change from their usual starting eleven with influential inside left Sid Storey injured and Sam McNab took his place. Nevertheless City started the match quite well but fell behind after 14 minutes when Vic Keeble scored. However York stuck to the task and equalised on the half hour mark when Arthur Bottom won the ball in midfield and ran 30 yards before slipping the ball into an empty net after rounding goalkeeper Ronnie Simpson. After the interval playing conditions deteriorated and both sides struggled, and then in the 80th minute there was controversy when a Arthur Bottom header was scooped out by Simpson with many thinking it had crossed the line. In the end it was generally thought that a 1-1 draw was a fair result in a match played in such terrible conditions. The draw meant that York City had gone further in the F.A. Cup than any other 3rd Division side by taking the semi-final to a replay. For the record Millwall and Port Vale were the other sides to have reach the semi-final stage. 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. www.tooab.com