Match programme: York City v Tranmere Rovers (18 April 1955)

About this match programme

By Richard Snowball

This match programme – a single sheet – is one of York City’s rarest post-war programmes and was produced during an intensive fixture schedule in 1955.

After being defeated by Newcastle United in the F.A. Cup semi-final replay on the March 30, 1955, York City were still in with a chance of promotion but faced the prospect of playing 13 League matches between April 2 and May 5 (34 days).

In the midst of this spell, on Monday April 18, 1955, they entertained Tranmere Rovers at Bootham Crescent, where a crowd of 10,996 watched York battle to a 1-0 victory, with wing half Gordon Brown scoring the goal.

This was the eighth of the thirteen games of which they had won five and drawn three, but the pressure of playing so many matches in such a short period of time caught up with them and they only won two and lost three of the final five.

Another important factor that did not help was that star goal scorer Arthur Bottom was injured in the Easter Monday game against Accrington Stanley and did not play in the last eight matches. He scored 31 goals in 38 League games and a further 8 in the 8 F.A. Cup matches.

York finished fourth in the League seven points behind Champions Barnsley who were promoted (only one team went up).

All round it had been a tremendous season for York City who operated for the majority of the season with a squad of thirteen players with others making occasional appearances.

In total they played 56 matches and only lost 13. Quite a remarkable feat when you remember they were only part time players.

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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