A Welcome Return… But Not A Happy One

ON THE day the Blue Square Bet Premier clubs entered the FA Trophy, I spent last Saturday at the home of the holders, League Two new-boys York City.

The main purpose was to belatedly hand out a hat-trick of trophies the Minstermen were due to collect at our National Game Awards in May, but couldn’t after chairman Jason McGill whisked them off to Benidorm at the last minute.

So Matty Blair received his Young Player of the Year award, Jason Walker his Goal of the Season – for that brilliant     overhead kick against Grimsby – and Gary Mills an NLP Special Achievement award for becoming the first manager to win both the Trophy and BSBP play-offs in the same campaign.

Unfortunately for the hosts, the report I had to pen for our sister publication, The Football League Paper, centred on the fact that none of them could reproduce last season’s Minster magic.

Torquay made a habit of winning at Bootham Crescent in the Conference, and Martin Ling’s men did so for a third league visit in a row mainly thanks to a couple of their own 2008-09 promotion heroes – winger Danny Stevens scoring the first and keeper Michael Poke outstanding between the sticks!