New year, new ground
30 years after first visiting Bootham Crescent, is York's LNER Stadium on the right track?
My York City memories are old-school. Bootham Crescent, mid-90s, scratching the football itch on unfamiliar turf while at university. The old ground was a classic lower division affair. Defiantly no frills, especially in the toilets, it was a meeting place for misfits and characters where gallows humour was always to the fore.
Since then, the club’s fortunes have faltered. I watched a League One (or Division Two, as it was back then) team humble Manchester United and Everton in the League Cup. Today, it’s National League action and a battle to escape relegation to National North. Just to rub it in, Harrogate Town unexpectedly, almost inexplicably, made the reverse journey from non-league mediocrity to the Football League. The glorious unpredictability of the beautiful game is rather less joyful when your team is the one crashing down the leagues.
While all that was going on, Bootham Crescent was finally sold to developers (a plan mooted before I even arrived in town) and a new stadium arrived on the edge of town, replacing the old rugby league ground at Huntingdon.
Thoughts about the value of progress took a battering on the way to this New Year’s Day clash with Gateshead. The club, wisely, encourages fans to travel to games by bus. York, less wisely, has no bank holiday bus services. With parking hard to come by near the ground, it meant a long slog from the famous pubs of York city centre to a retail park on the edge of town.
And that’s another bone of contention. Bootham Crescent looked like a football ground. Not, admittedly, a prestigious stadium. But unmistakeably a football ground. Floodlights, stands, signage – it all fostered a sense of identity. The LNER Stadium, built in partnership with the city council and housing a swimming pool and leisure centre, isn’t quite the same. Conceived from the outset as a ground share with York’s rugby league club, it doesn’t quite feel like home to either. A sense of belonging isn’t exactly helped by the multiplex cinema that dominates one end. It probably helps to pay the bills – and clearly York had problems with that over the years – but it doesn’t quite make for a footballing experience.
So, on arrival at the game, expectations were not high. A slow-moving queue for tickets in a cramped club shop didn’t much enhance the mood. Yet, once through the gate, things picked up at once. Although the ground lacks a distinctive focal point – an uncharitable view might suggest the stands are lack non-league prefabs on steroids – it’s a neat, tidy venue with great sight lines. That’s not something that could ever be said of Bootham Crescent. Better still, the cinema acts as a handy screen to block the setting sun, much to the relief of fans in the East Stand. With 8,500 seats, it’s easily big enough for the Minstermen’s needs, although the lack of a terraced end feels like a missed opportunity. On the day, more than 5,000 came along and generated a decent atmosphere.
That atmosphere was helped by a home win. Elsewhere on social media, other neutral commentators felt that Gateshead were unlucky. I’d respectfully disagree. Yes, when the visitors cut through the home defence after 23 seconds and dragged a shot narrowly wide it felt like York could be in for a long afternoon. But when the Heed defence backed off Will Davies, inviting him to open the scoring in the fourth minute, we saw the fatal flaw in Gateshead’s game.
The promotion-chasing Tynesiders were altogether too passive and largely beat themselves here. Going forward, there was a tendency to over-elaborate – shades of late Arsene Wenger-era Arsenal. It was often pretty easy for York to keep any threat at arm’s length. One player who looked capable of breaking through, Kyran Lofthouse, got plenty of joy against Thierry Latty-Fairweather until an incident after about half-an-hour. The York full back went to ground, won the ball, but then seemed to impede his opponent as he tried to regain possession. After that, the Barnsley loanee’s attention shifted from playing football to berating the officials and he was never as effective again.
Continuing to shoot themselves in the foot, Gateshead won a penalty late in the first half, only for Marcus Dinanga to fire a weak effort down the middle for George Sykes-Kenworthy to save. The second half brought a second City goal from the lively Dipo Akinyemi and Gateshead played toothless possession football until the end.
Jan. 1, 2024
National League
York City 2 Gateshead 0
LNER Stadium, York. Att: 5,094.