York City christen their new ground ....

Yep a pressure penalty that

 

Well I like to look back and remember simpler times before money and Sky hijacked the game.

The mid-seventies wasn’t a great time to be a Reds fan but we all got through it and enjoyed more ups and downs in the coming decades. At least we had good players if not a particularly good team - Les Lea, Peter Price, John Peachey, Bobby Doyle and Alistair Millar were a few examples.

Just goes to show that even in the bad times there were jewels in the Oakwell crown....

 

See Les Lea often on my walks when I pass his house .
He cuts his lawn with hand shears . Often reminiscences about his Playing Days at Blackpool and Barnsley .
Love his stories of when he was under the wing of the Great Sir Stanley Mathews .
He didn’t want to come to Barnsley at the time which tbf was probably a grey prospect for a young man but he settled here after so all good in the end .

 

Me too

 

Me too mate The first half of the sentence, not the second half

 

Have been lucky enough to be in conversation with Les a few times before games and he is a true gentleman.
Will talk about his time at Blackpool and with the Reds and will always speak kindly about everyone he experienced at the club - as I say - a gentleman.

 

Part of a double signing. Les and Frank Sharp, from Cardiff. We ended up with a pair of very capable wingers for around £20,000. We also added another wide man - Mike Kear from Middlesbrough, but he was only a short term loan. All looked very promising for a while.

 

Great to see York reviving their fortunes. Famous old Club that back in the day, attracted
bumper crowds to Bootham Crescent. Mate of mine Archie Taylor played for them ( also
played for the Reds). Remember him joining a family birthday celebration on a Saturday
night after they had played Southampton in a 3-3 draw in the FA Cup Fourth Round in 1971.

Deputy Director at YPO's Dad led York to perhaps their greatest Cup win in 1985. Veteran
ex- Stoke stopper Denis Smith saw his City team defeat the mighty Arsenal 1-0. Not too sure,
but I think they got to the semi final one season. Sad to see that after such an illustrious past
they are now playing outside of the EFL.

 

I can remember going one Friday night to Bootham Crescent during the 1977/78 season. We had two former York City players upfront for us that evening, John Peachey & Jimmy Hinch. The tannoy announcer welcomed both players back, but then said in a very camp John Inman-like voice "Just be sure to behave yourselves tonight, boys". I think Hinch scored that match in a 2-1 win. Alan Little certainly did, with an absolute piledriver of a shot. .All the goals were scored at the open away end, in front of us Barnsley fans.
An away win under Jim Iley that season was as rare as finding hen's teeth under a blue moon!

 

I never saw us lose to York home or away and my last visit to Bootham was that 7-1 win in a pre-season friendly a couple of years ago.