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Reliving 95/96: Relegation Threatened York Spoil Robins' Party
Twenty years on from Swindon Town’s title-winning season in Division Two, David Wallis tells the tale of that 1995/96 campaign week by week – every week on Total Sport. The story continues
On Saturday 13th January 1996 Town travelled to Bootham Crescent to face relegation threatened York City, and the result didn’t go according to plan.
During the first half Martin Ling had an opportunity which he stuck over the bar after Wayne Allison and Paul Bodin had combined to engineer the chance, then Ling was denied by keeper Dean Kiely after Peter Thorne had laid the ball off to the midfielder.
Fraser Digby raced out to shut down an onrushing Glenn Naylor for the home side, but the Town keeper was about to have an even greater influence on proceedings when Eddie Murray was harshly adjudged to have hauled down York striker Paul Barnes
Barnes picked himself up to drive his spot kick to Digby’s right, but Fraser dived to beat the ball away.
But in the second half a Digby long ball from a free kick was easily cleared by the York defence. This time Barnes shrugged off the attention of Murray and played a ball through to the running Naylor. Charging through to the corner of the six yard box, the striker placed a sweet shot past the right hand of Digby and into the top corner to give City a 59th minute lead.
Town pressed and Wayne O’Sullivan forced Kiely into a smart save following a Bodin corner, then a Steve Finney ball found Kevin Horlock on the edge of the York six yard box where Steve Tuthill saved the day with a defensive block near the goal line with the goalkeeper flailing.
But, as Town pushed for an equaliser and five minute remaining, Adrian Randall outraced Bodin down the City right and played a ball into Graeme Murty. Ty Gooden successfully shut the wide down, but Murty picked himself up to square the ball to a predatory Andy McMillan on the edge of the six yard box where the defender slipped the ball through the legs of a despairing Digby dive to confirm the destination of the points.
While the result was plainly a disappointing outcome against a team struggling to stay out of the relegation zone, the defeat was just the third of the season for Town after 24 games, and with Crewe also going down 3-2 at Bristol City, Town remained three points clear at the top of the Division Two table.
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