The excitement is building ahead of York City’s first home game of a new era on Saturday.
Following a spending spree which saw the new ownership team, mother and son Julie-Anne and Matt Uggla, assemble a 30-plus strong squad, hopes are sky high.
Even a loss in the first game, 2-1 away to Wealdstone, has not dampened expectations. Unusually for the famously impatient City faithful, the watchword is: Give it time.
Right now, the very fact that York City FC is a viable, functioning proposition is a minor miracle. The word from inside the club before the takeover was that it had only weeks before it would fall into administration.
It followed months of turbulence, which saw then chairman Glen Henderson fall out with the fans and their representatives in the boardroom, York City Supporters’ Trust. And it left the club in real jeopardy at the end of its centenary season.
That the new owners have banished such fears is worth celebrating on its own.
But they have done more than invest their money in the Minstermen. Matt and Julie-Anne’s engagement campaign has won over many a sceptical supporter.
They have gone out of their way to meet, listen to and socialise with fans – even going so far as to help out at the ticket office today, when the queue of people trying to pick up their season tickets threatened to get out of hand.
Such an approach has proved particularly important, given that the previous owner had said “the fans are the club” before it all turned sour. Words are good, deeds are better.
The new hope surrounding York City FC is tangible. You could see it today in the number of people waiting to collect their season tickets.
You could see it in the large crowds who turned up to watch a training session this morning. (The very idea that York City would allow fans to watch the team train would have been unthinkable in a club beset by a culture of suspicion and secrecy not so long ago.)
And you could see it in the smiles that greeted the players as they signed autographs and posed for selfies when training came to an end.
The investment, the engagement, the openness have given the long-downtrodden CIty faithful real hope again. They will be in good voice on Saturday.
Come on, City!
- York City play Kidderminster Harriers on Saturday 12 August at the LNER Community Stadium. Tickets are available via the club website
[tptn_list limit=3 daily=1 hour_range=1]