Match programme: York City v Northampton Town (29 April 1978)

About this match programme

By Richard Snowball

After back-to-back relegations, York City found themselves back in Division Four for 1977-78 after two seasons in the heady heights of Division Two (later renamed the Championship).

They started the season badly, winning only three of their opening thirteen matches, and as a result manager Wilf McGuiness was sacked and replaced by Charlie Wright.

Results improved slightly but without any consistency, and coming into the last game of the season they were already certain to have to apply for re-election to the Football League for the sixth time in their history.

Only 1,339 spectators turned up to Bootham Crescent for this match against Northampton Town on April 29, 1978, which at the time was the smallest ever crowd for a City home match.

It was another dismal performance and for the third match in a row they failed to score, and went down 3-0.

In November 1977, local player Brian Pollard, a product of the youth system at Bootham Crescent, was sold to Watford for a then-record fee of ÂŁ33,000. He had made his debut for York as a 17-year-old in 1972 and had made 185 appearances, scoring 37 goals. He returned to York three years later and played for three more seasons.

At the end of the season, Chris Topping left the club to join Huddersfield Town. He had just completed a seventh successive season as an ever-present, and had made 355 consecutive appearances. In total, he had played 463 games for York City, the third highest in the clubs history.

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