Match programme: York City v Sunderland (26 Mar 1988)

About this match programme

By Richard Snowball The 1987-88 season was one of the worst in York City's history with the club recording only eight wins and losing 29 of their 46 matches, accumulating a mere 33 points.

Surprisingly, they did not finish bottom of the League as Doncaster Rovers had an identical record but a worse goal difference. The other two teams relegated were Grimsby Town and Rotherham United, so a bad season for northern clubs.

On March 26, 1988, York entertained high-flying Sunderland, managed by ex-York City pair Denis Smith and Viv Busby, and York were lying bottom of the table with only three home wins all season.

A difficult game was expected. In the Sunderland side were ex-York players Marco Gabbiadini and John MacPhail.

To the surprise of the season's biggest crowd of 9,183, especially the large contingent of Sunderland fans, York ran out 2-1 winners with goals from Ian Helliwell and Dale Banton with the latter finishing the season's top goal scorer with 16 League goals despite playing only 32 matches.

Things did not improve very much for York although they did win three more games, but Sunderland pushed on and won the Division Three title by a comfortable nine points from Brighton & Hove Albion.

Acknowledgement This facsimile of the match programme was created by the publisher of There’s Only One Arthur Bottom, the daily email newsletter for fans of York City FC, and TOOAB contributors Richard Snowball, Terry Espiner and Paul Bowser. www.tooab.com