Monday, 20 March 2017

Road to Wembley - Round Four

Road to Wembley - Round Four


The draw for the fourth round brought up another trip to Bootham Crescent for me as York City Knights had been drawn at home to the now-Championship club Rochdale Hornets.


It was three weeks of eager anticipation since I’d seen the Knights comfortably overcome Egremont Rangers in the previous round and I was looking forward to catching up with one or two old friends from Rochdale having done some reporting work for them last season.

This would be Rochdale’s first foray into this season’s Challenge Cup and having gained promotion to the Championship following a fine victory away to Toulouse in the Promotion Final they have started the 2017 season in good form.  The Hornets reached the fifth round of the competition last season so would come into this game as slight favourites against a York side that had been nilled by Barrow in their opening League 1 game and just sneaked past South Wales the previous weekend.

It was the first time this season where I would venture to the match on my own so it was a long round trip up and down the M62 on a rather quiet Sunday afternoon.  However, my plan of getting to the ground early and finding a parking space didn’t quite go to plan as, in typical football/rugby ground-in-the-middle-of-a-housing-estate style, I ended up having to squeeze into an empty spot a few blocks away and walking back to the ground.  I did ask a steward about parking but my only other option seemed to driving about half a mile back to the hospital, paying £2 for the privilege of parking there, then walking all the way back so I was pretty pleased when I eventually found the space I did.

I still made it in good time though and was able to buy a match programme (which was considerably more substantial than last time than the previous round’s) and bought a half-time draw ticket for a total of £3 pounds.  To be honest I didn’t hear what number had been drawn out so I could be sat at home writing this with a wad of cash somewhere in York with my name on it!  I seriously doubt it was mine - I’m not that lucky - but if anyone was there and remembers if it wasn’t claimed my ticket number is 0623, so please do let me know.

As the teams were warming up I had a brief catch-up with Luke Harrison, a director of Rochdale who I knew from my time at Spotland last season, and was able to take a spot near the half way line again.

The match got underway and it turned out to be much more eventful than I thought it would be.  The York players were clearly up for this game against higher league opposition and seemed to have a point to prove to their fans after an indifferent start to the campaign.

So much so that they raced into a surprise 14-0 lead inside the first 20 minutes during which time Rochdale were barely out of their own half.  The tone was set when a Hornets man dropped an easy ball in front of his own line right from the kick-off to hand York head-and-feed of the scrum just 10 yards out and the Knights took their early chances well.

Two converted tries and a penalty were registered before Rochdale finally realised they were actually playing a game.  I was texting my dad before the game joking whether the York kicker Harry Tyson-Wilson would be able to convert any of his kicks this week as it took him seven attempts to score with his boot in the previous round.  I was clearly eating my words at full time as he’d go on to nail all of his kicks.

Two quick converted tries in a five minute spell brought the game, and the crowd around me, to life as the score was poised at 14-12 with less than ten minutes of the half remaining.  I was led to believe that the referee was having a bad game and didn’t know what the hell he was doing.  At least that was what the few hundred York supporters in the stand were regularly confirming with the use of some loud and tasty language!  Deja vu struck hard when it felt like I had been in this atmosphere before – oh wait, I had!

One of the more enjoyable aspects of the half was the comical, but accurate, blow-by-blow commentary from the group of elderly gentlemen sat next to me who liked to discuss all aspects of both codes of rugby and had clearly been coming to watch York for the past 40 or so years.

The crowd were much more pleased by half time as York had managed to sneak in another six points to lead 20-12.

I was starting to feel parched so took the opportunity at the half time break to venture down to the nearest food and drink kiosk which turned out to be the clubhouse bar.  I waited in the queue and got my £1.60 ready as it stated on the board for my pint of orange cordial and lemonade and nearly choked on my first sip when the bar lady charged me £3.20!  I staggered back to my seat and was left think that I may as well have bought a proper pint for that price.

As I sat back down preciously holding the most expensive fizzy soft drink I think I’ve ever bought the game was back underway.  In my head Rochdale were going to pull themselves together and turn this game around, but York are not their bogey team for nothing.  York had beaten the Hornets in all three meetings last season and they were about to make it a fourth in a row.

Rochdale did pull the scores back level with 20 minutes remaining in a great second half for any neutrals watching and I could hear the nerves jangling all around me.  But it was to be York’s day as the Tyson-Wilson brothers had the last say thanks to Bobby’s try and Harry’s conversion which produced a six-point margin which Rochdale wouldn’t come back from.

The ref blew the final whistle and the York fans were ecstatically congratulating their players whilst I stood back in the stand clapping both sides off the pitch after what was in fairness a very good cup tie.

I left the ground feeling that this victory could well kick-start York’s season and see them push on for a place in the play-offs at the end of the year.  And with that passionate home crowd behind them every game they probably won’t be far off.

I now look forward to seeing where my ‘Road to Wembley’ takes me next.  Will it be a third consecutive trip to Bootham Crescent or will the draw be kinder and give me a tie a bit closer to home?

If you like what you read you can follow me on Twitter at @TheRLBlogger.

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