No more reasonably local away grounds than this last season for York(shire)-based fans. We're losing Bootham Crescent, obviously, and gaining only Valley Parade unless Rotherham fail to be promoted tomorrow night.
It's not so long ago that we had league fixtures at Doncaster, Huddersfield and Hull in the same season. We'll still be two divisions below two of them, possibly all three if Hudds win tonight, but we've surely got momentum now and can hope to go on to higher things.
As a York resident for 8 years now (Headington for 25 years before that), my preferred scenario this season was for both Oxford and York to be promoted, automatically and via the playoffs respectively, and that was a distinct possibility until the Us' lean spell in the new year. Martin Foyle said nice things about the Us and Chris Wilder in an article about his career in the local press Wembley supplement on Saturday, including "It's a shame only one club can make it back into the League tomorrow". Maybe next year for York ... rather than Luton, anyway.
Wembley on Sunday was a fabulous experience, as much so as my recollection of 20 April 1986, when I took my then 11-year-old son and friends. Those three seasons in Div 1 made him a Us supporter, though like me not a regular attender - he occasionally goes to games in the London area, where he lives. This time he got our tickets (the system rejected my application because of the YO postcode ...
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, plus some for three of his local friends including an AFC Wimbledon fan. It was probably groups like ours that accounted for the massive numbers of Oxford supporters in the stadium. For York fans the silly 5pm Sunday kickoff and the cost and practicalities of travel were a real deterrent - not a problem for me as, being retired, I was free to stay overnight in London and get a Monday morning train home.
The return to the league emphasises how depressing the last few years have been, going to venues like Farsley and Gateshead against teams with paltry support. Maybe some Div 4 grounds will be equally unappealing, but we're on the way back towards our rightful place in the footballing world.