Tomorrow night, we welcome our good friends from York City to the Mangata Developments Stadium. May I wish their Directors, Manager, players and supporters an enjoyable stay with us and a safe journey home.
In truth as we enter the business end of the season, we ended up having an incredible 2025 and who knows what 2026 might bring us? The permutations at this stage of the season are of course endless with us sitting in fourth place in the league and having reached the final of the National League Cup.
For me York City have the strongest squad within the National League, and I genuinely fancy them to pip Rochdale to the title after finishing second last season with 96 points. For us, we accept we are an underdog club and as such we know what to expect from games like this evenings and know when you play the bigger ex-Football League clubs you must match their work rate and their desire, as they will arrive here with a swagger, with a confidence, with a large fanbase but underneath it all, they will still be trying to deal with the pressure and the huge fan expectation.
Pressure can at times suffocate some of the bigger clubs as Southend United and perhaps Carlisle United are now finding out. York City though it appears are handling things very well up to now under Stuart Maynard and they also have a very loyal but expectant support base to satisfy and at the moment they are dealing with things beautifully.
When you’re an ex-Football League club like York City, Carlisle United, Scunthorpe United, Rochdale and Southend United, there is of course a historical expectation that demands EFL football and who can argue when you see their support levels. That’s why the 3UP Campaign needs to succeed sometime soon, as some of the clubs in our league are simply too big for this level and they deserve (as we all do), promotion and relegation parity that clubs in the EFL enjoy.
For a small club like ourselves to have been top of the pile as we entered the New Year, was perhaps beyond everyone’s expectation. In truth since then our form has been patchy but we’ve done enough to hang in there and as I write these notes, we still sit in the top 4, which means as we enter March that we are up there on merit.
There’s no doubt Luke and the dressing room are still targeting third, but I know we will experience weeks where we will take one step forward and two steps back until the season’s end. That said, for a club our size just to be in the play-off mix, shows how well we are run, how good recruitment has been and what a job Luke Garrard, his staff and the dressing room are doing.
Tomorrow evening, I must belatedly thank York City for allowing us to take Jeff King on his initial loan. I think the loan was hugely beneficial to all parties and I hope Jeff returned to York better from his experience with us. In truth, we did everything we could to keep him, and I discussed with the York hierarchy the possibility of taking him on a permanent deal. However, it was made very clear that No meant No and as everyone can see, Kingy is now very much in Stuart Maynard’s plans.
On the injury front we still have Callum Reynolds, Erico Sousa, Ollie Kensdale, Luke Norris and Tom White out but now only for the short term which means we are slightly light in one or two positions but nothing that we cannot deal with and hopefully we can expect another signing soon.
In truth, in Tom White’s absence we went out and signed Regan Booty and Marley Miranda-Marshall on permanent deals and in Erico’s absence we have signed Leon Ayinde on loan from Ipswich Town. So, we feel we still have a very strong and versatile squad to pick from tomorrow evening.
In fact, we will have the same squad who overcome a very good Southend United team away from home last Tuesday and the same squad that lost on a pathetic and slow Astro pitch at Tamworth on Saturday. So, we must wipe our mouths after Saturday’s set back and re-focus on tomorrow night’s game.
We must still look up, target third and believe in all possibilities. We have to believe in each other, we must stick together and if we can put our best foot forward this evening, we can enjoy each moment and accept the challenges that will lie ahead with no real pressure on us.
After the pressure of relegation two seasons ago, the pressure of promotion last season, I must say I feel no pressure this season, just expectation and excitement. That might be because of the support I receive from my family, friends, sponsors, partners and you the fans and it genuinely makes the impossible dream of the EFL somehow seem possible.
Of course, to dream that impossible dream, we must remain humble, we must remain hard working, and we must bite our lip when the noise starts. After the disappointment of the Tamworth result, we must re-focus ourselves on our togetherness and ensure we deliver a better performance tomorrow night, and that’s not rocket science.
Tomorrow night though, is all about two very good football teams going toe to toe and nobody perhaps predicted back in August that this game would be a 1st v 4th match up and so we embrace it in the knowledge we will do our best to cause an upset. With York’s firepower, I would expect a very open game, much like the away game where we drew 2-2, and though York City scored late in both halves (which hurt us hugely at the time), on reflection it was probably a fair result but most definitely a great game for the neutral.
Anyway, let’s hope for an open, attacking game and may the best team win.
Take care,
Danny.
