Match: v York City - Blue Square Premier

Date: Saturday, October 4th

Result: York 0 Cambridge United 0

The Journey

Departure Time: 8.45am

Arrival at Ground: Road works on the A1 didn't misbehave too much so the journey up was a straightforward one, passing myriad coaches of Leeds supporters heading in the opposite direction on their way to a miserable afternoon in Peterborough.

We arrived at the ground a little before 12.30pm, where we were greeted by the news that the press wouldn't be allowed into the ground until 2pm. Of course that didn't matter to some of our travelling party, who took the opportunity to take a short walk into the city to visit at the Minster, but it wasn't ideal for anyone due on air at that very time. Fortunately, a kindly lady steward took pity on us and persuaded the powers that be to overturn the edict.

At The Ground

The Ground: Other than a name change from Bootham Crescent to the KitKat Crescent, the ground is still very much as the Vikings might have known it in the 10th Century. Okay, maybe it's not quite as old and decrepit as all that, but it hasn't changed much in years.

Set on a street corner beside terraced houses, the ground is certainly starting to show signs of its age. The once bright red paint that decorates the outside of the main stand is now starting to look very thin, as is the battleship grey that adorns the honeycomb offices that sit beside it.

Inside, the main stand is in two distinct sections; a lower section, once terraced, contains fairly new red plastic seats, while the older upper section is filled with the ancient timbers of wooden seats. The press is allocated assorted vantage points in this upper section. The reporter for the home BBC station is particularly fortunate, sharing an elevated platform at the back of the stand with a commentator from hospital radio while the visiting BBC station is allocated a couple of seats elsewhere. Well I say 'seats'...

Like the animals waiting to board Noah's Ark, the remaining members of the fourth estate are arranged in pairs behind narrow benches that run in line astern up the stand and I had to take my place at the back of this line, behind the only bench where the seats had been ripped out to make room for the metal shutters that protect the public address box. Instead of seats, a small bench has been installed - which is an improvement on last season. By the time my summariser, all the broadcast equipment and I had been shoehorned in, the working area was considerably less than capacious.

To the right of this stand, you can see the white clapboard bell tower of now closed Victorian school peeping over the roof of the terrace allocated to home fans. Shaped like a truncated pyramid, this end of the ground differs from the visitors terrace at the opposite end of the ground only in the roof that keeps home supporters dry on inclement days, such as the one on which we visited.

All is not lost for away fans if it rains though. They can pay a pound (a fee that didn't seem to be collected when we were there) to transfer into seats at one end of the stand that runs along the side of the ground facing the main stand. This stand is filled with red plastic seats that have faded at various rates over the years so they now, like a decorator's colour chart, run through all shades of pink to virtually white.

United Fans: Plenty of U's fans sensibly transferred into the seats where they could take advantage of the roof, staying dry and generating a bit more noise at the same time. You had to leave this area to reach the facilities and those wishing so to do where issued with a ticket to allow them back in. The louder element transferred into this area where, naturally, they stood rather than sat and generated some excellent support - although a few did seem to spend more time goading the home fans than actually watching the game.

View from Away End: The view from the away terrace was unobstructed but rather damp, while you couldn't see quite so well from the seats you did at least stay dry.

Home Fans: York fans seem to fall into two distinct categories: there was a young element, with waving flags and banners, who were quite loud and stood behind a banner that read 'JR 04'. Apparently the JR refers to Jorvik Reds and not, as I supposed, that bloke from Dallas! The vast majority of York fans though seemed to be a generation or two older and purveyors of the most polite barracking of the match officials you're ever likely to hear. "Could you at least try to get a decision right?" was about as nasty as it got.

Police/Stewards: There were two sets of stewards in the ground; while those in the home sections were the usual type of helpful steward you find just about everywhere in the Conference, those looking after the visitors were from an independent security company. They confiscated the drum brought by United fans - home supporters weren't allowed one either - but they were less effective when trying to get U's fans to sit down.

Programme: £3 for 48 pages. The first article explained why the ground didn't seem to have changed much in years - in his article, the Chairman said, "I feel therefore that significant progress can now be made in determining a financial and administrative strategy and the implementation of a management committee to make the new stadium opportunity a reality by 2012". So there you have it. Elsewhere, loads of adverts jostled for space with articles and photos - and won.

Food/Drink: Our tasters had to have a KitKat at KitKat Crescent (they couldn't find a Bootham Bar) and were disappointed to find that they were not crescent shaped after all.

State of Toilets: A walled enclosure with no roof or doors, the toilets would have not looked out of place at the recreation of Viking York at the nearby Jorvik Centre.

Afterwards

The Journey Home: Road works closed the A1 on the way back, but the diversion wasn't too inconvenient - although not quite what you want at the end of a long day. Still, they shouldn't bother us again this season. It may only be October, but this is the last time we are scheduled to use this particular section of road until next season - unless the various cups, trophies and shields have other ideas.

Mileage: 345.6 miles

Total Distance for Season: 1,833.1 miles

Mark Johnson, with additional reporting by David Gray, Paul Johnson and Ryan Johnson

[Match report] [Fixture list] [League table]

Make Your Click Count For The U's - talk about it on the Message Board!

You are respectfully reminded that any article, as with all content on this website, unless otherwise stated, is subject to copyright © and the Official Cambridge United Website must be acknowledged as the original source including all quotes.

AT081007