Bingo! a quiz and a guaranteed two-hour shopping sessionat a designer outlet on the outskirts of York then onto the football. I must admit that Denzil’s bargain bus was a decent offer at only £14 a head. The trouble is that the usual suspects have little interest in fashion, we are more Asda George than Georgio Armani. So, having politely declined, we met at our usual spot and headed straight to the chippy. Our 57-mile journey east could wait, a decent lunch was much more important.
There was bright sunshine, and it felt like the first day of spring. The traffic was good as we rolled up to the stadium,hidden away amongst the shops and leisure activities in a retail park on the outskirts of York. York’s new ground is a bit of a mystery, it’s hard to tell whether it’s a football ground with shops added, or whether it’s a purpose-built retail park with a football ground squashed in. In the daylight you must look carefully to spot any sign of the ground, only the tops of the short modern floodlights appear above the roof of the nearby supermarket as you approach on the main road.
With Town’s allocation of tickets sold out in advance of the game, there was always going to be a great atmosphere. The stewards plan for everyone to sit in their own seats wasquickly scrapped as the drummer arrived with his merry men and occupied the prime spots. There are only seven rows of seats behind the goal in the away end, so as time ticked towards kick-off the vocal collective spread out as more and more fans arrived. It was bouncing, and the game hadn’t started yet.
The Keighley Shayman arrived just in the nick of time to witness a goal at the far end, he was just a few minutes late getting into the ground. He thought Tesco Pete was winding him up when he shared the news of the score. The Shaymen were already two goals up after a lighting start to the game. The Keighley Shayman wasn’t the only one, some fans missed both goals in the opening three minutes of the game. As for the rest of us, it was incredible to witness, the noise was amazing, the York fans were silent, it was wonderful.
York grew into the game shortly after our second goal, they looked dangerous and created a few chances before the referee awarded them a stonewall penalty midway through the half. That goal changed the mood in the ground, suddenly the 6,000 home fans joined in the singing. Aserious injury to a York player resulted in 11 minutes of extratime at the end of the first half, but with three bookings for the Shaymen the referee wasn’t too popular.
In the second half the Shaymen kicked towards the 850 or so boisterous travelling fans and looked more comfortable after the York onslaught before the break. It was very much a case of holding the home team who were pressing at every opportunity for an equaliser. The Shaymen created a few chances and kept calm with a solid defence. The referee’s signal for nine minutes of injury time at the end of the game was incredible, inconsistent with the extended first half and left the travelling Shaymen bemused. With many York fans abandoning hope and leaving, it was no real surprise to us that York pinched an equaliser shortly before 8.00pm.
Driving back, we reflected on what might have been. It was a great performance, a well-earned point, and it keeps up our unbeaten record on their new ground. The team did us all proud, we’re great away from home.
Next up and we’re back down south to Sutton. Let’s get that atmosphere at home too.. C’mon Shaymen
Miles on the road: 5562. Goals on the road: 26. Points on the road: 30.
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