Bootham Crescent

Saturday 4 January 2014

York City 3-1 Dagenham & Redbridge

Aerial shot of Bootham Crescent (Bing Maps)

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 4/10

Ease of getting there : 8/10

Atmosphere : 6/10

Programme : 7/10

View of Action : 5/10

Quality of the game : 7/10

The "football" feeling : 5/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 1/10

Legroom : N/A

Surrounding area : 9/10

Overall : 52/100

Grosvenor Road End

Main Stand

The toilets at the rear of the David Longhurst Stand

Main Stand

Grosvenor Road End

Popular Side '£1.00 for a seat' transfer in full action

Adrian with the Drums and Flags in the David Longhurst Stand

Popular Side

David Longhurst Stand

Inside the David Longhurst Stand

Main Stand

Drums and Flags at the ready...

Main Stand

Grosvenor Road End

Popular Side

Main Stand

Grosvenor Road End

Popular Side

York City 3-1 Dagenham and Redbridge

During the Christmas break, Adrian and I looked at potential ground visits for 4^th January as this was the only available weekend for both of us during the first month of 2014. During the first week of January, most of the UK witnessed storms which consequently made fixture postponements inevitable. We had a choice of Bournemouth (which we may go to in February during Leicester’s visit), Portsmouth vs Accrington Stanley and York City v Dagenham and Redbridge. With the south suffering the worst of the weather, Portsmouth’s fixture was postponed the day before which only left us with Bootham Crescent. We decided to take a chance on the weather!

We left at 8:30am making our way up the M1 northbound towards Leeds. We reached Headingley at 10:20am and to our amazement managed to get in with permission from the security guard at the gate. Headingley occupies both cricket and rugby on either side of main.

Our next stop was Throstle Nest which is the home of Farsley AFC. Following the demise of Farsley Celtic in 2010, the club was raised from the ashes but with the new name Farsley AFC. We struggled to get photos of Throstle Nest which saw Adrian deciding to make his way through bushes and trees in order to get a photo of the terrace behind the goal.

Our final stop before we reached York is Guiseley who play at Nethermoor Park. Guiseley reached the FA Vase final during the early 1990’s and played at Wembley Stadium against Derbyshire outfits Gresley Rovers. After a 4-4 draw, a replay was required at Bramall Lane which Guiseley won 3-1. Guiseley witnessed a fire at their ground in 2008 which saw the main stand destroyed and in disrepair which saw the rise of a new stand shortly after.

From Guiseley, we took the A658 and A59 before reaching York at 12:30pm. We parked on Burton Stone Lane which is only a few minute walk to the ground with the city centre only 10 minutes walk away from the ground. We decided to eat in the city centre at a 400 year old pub called the Punch Bowl on Stonegate where we enjoyed a shared cottage pie washed down with an Ale and Shandy.

Following that we walked back towards Bootham Crescent (even though it doesn’t appear to be a crescent!) and started to take some photos before making our way through the turnstiles.

During the Second World War, Bootham Crescent’s Popular Stand was converted into an air raid shelter and the ground suffered slight damage when a bomb landed on houses at the Shipton Street End. Floodlights were fitted at the ground in 1959 at the cost of £14,500. The ground was renamed KitKat Crescent in 2005, owing to a sponsorship deal with Nestlé, which expired in January 2010. The stadium currently has a capacity of 7,872 with plans to move to a new community stadium in the near future.

When we were in the ground, we looked for the toilets before Adrian asked a steward. The steward told him that it was at the back of the David Longhurst Stand which we then discovered to be an outhouse between the stand and the back of a row of houses which probably hasn’t changed much since Adrian’s last visit in 1985 or maybe since the ground was built in 1932!

Dagenham and Redbridge failed to capitalise on several good first half chances and despite going in at half time the better side were completely over run in the second half by York City who upped their effort and intensity to deservedly win 3-1.
Ryan Bowman fired City ahead with a shot through a crowded area under the keeper after Dagenham and Redbridge had failed to clear, strike partner Wes Fletcher then took over, his cross from the byeline took a wicked deflection off the luckless Scott Doe deceiving goalkeeper Lewington for 2-0 and scored a second and York’s third with a nice piece of individual skill.
City with a huge confidence boost peppered the Daggers goal with Lewington making some crucial saves to deny further embarrassment. Rhys Murphy did give the 105 travelling fans something to cheer with a neat left foot finish following a defensive error, for a final score of 3-1.
Excellent second half of football from the home side, a well deserved win and 3 valuable league points. Two wins in four days, I guess it’s a Happy New Year for Nigel Worthington!

We left Bootham Crescent promptly and ran back towards the car and out of York on the A64, A1(M), M18 and M1 back down to the Midlands for 7pm.

A successful day of ground hopping which could’ve been disastrous had the weather suddenly changed and referee Gary Sutton postponed the game. Most notably, it was Adrian’s first visit to Headingley which he was really impressed by and as for myself, another ground out of the 92 completed with only 10 more grounds to be completed now!