Coming up: York City

The drop

Winter is coming. September concludes, fittingly, with a trip to The North. There's a distinct chill in the air, for the first game this season, coats will be standard issue. This is real football; no short sleeves and lush sun-kissed pitches from here on in. 

As a result of Wembley in 2010 and what preceded it (their semi-final win at Luton which resulted in a shameful attack by Luton fans on their players) we seem to have a warm paternal feeling towards York. When they came up we were genuinely pleased for them. Since promotion, they've settled into the role of mid-table plodders with the odd flirtation with relegation. This season looks a struggle with two wins - against Yeovil and bottom placed basket-cases Newport. There are points to be had here.

Old game of the day

I've done a mid-week away day at York. In 2003 I had to attend a conference in Harrogate which coincided with us playing in York on the Tuesday night. It was the greatest coincidence in history. We had promotion ambitions at the time - it was October and we'd only been beaten twice. Inevitably, we were awful. A undeserved last minute goal from Chris Hackett meant we scraped a draw. The chips, which were bought from little more than the front room of a terraced house, were nice.

But, historically, is there a worse fixture than a game between Oxford United and York City? We just seem to bring out the worst in each other. Mind you, there are couple of notable exceptions; this is one of the more memorable 'away' fixtures.

From the blog

"We need a vision of who we’re going to become; this is the easy bit, the fun bit, there should be no barrier to imagination when answering the question what makes the perfect club. But we’re afraid of even beginning that process."

Read on.