100 Owners: Douglas Craig, York City
If the decline of this football club has a timeline, that line can only start with the Douglas Craig.
On the 28th December 2020, in the 27th minute of the match, the York City centre-back Josh King flicked a cross from the right-hand side inside in the near post to give his team in their National League North match against Guiseley. It was the only goal match. It also, though no-one knew it at the time, was the last competitive goal to be scored at Bootham Crescent. A season already vastly interrupted by the pandemic was abandoned the following February. It was York’s last season at their traditional home. The fans never even got a chance to say goodbye.
For seventy-five years between 1929 and 2004, York City had been stalwarts rather than stars of the Football League, with two seasons in the Second Division between 1974 and 1976 being their sole stray from its bottom two divisions, but Bootham Crescent, a short walk from the centre of the city, was a favourite of many lower division supporters, a traditional English football ground set amongst rows of terraced houses and cobble stones.
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