Harry Boyes on York City's 'wake-up call' and a better than dream debut
Harry Boyes had a York City debut that exceeded even his dreams, and said the "wake-up call" of their season-opener had played a big part.
With Boyes a spectator, the Minstermen lost their first competitive match of 2026-27 in an acrimonious atmosphere to Crawley Town.
But when they returned to the Community Stadium ten days later for their first Football League game in a decade, things could scarcely have been more different against Bristol Roves.
Boyes scored twice as his side came back from Clinton Mola's opener and a Tommy Leigh equaliser to win 3-2. It was Boyes who conceded the spot kick Leigh converted.
The Sheffield United product had scored one goal in the previous four seasons, but York coach Scott Lindsey says he was signed to be a regular contributor.
The win quickly put to bed the Crawley defeat, where fans sang the name of Stuart Maynard, controversially sacked during pre-season, and voiced their anger with Lindsey.
"The Crawley game, I see it as a blessing," reflected Boyes. "It was a wake-up call for us.
"We'd rather it was the Crawley game than Saturday's.
"The new gaffer's come in, it's a learning curve, and I felt like we showed there will be a lot more points to come."
York had played well in parts against a more clinical Crawley, so when they outplayed a Bristol Rovers team well backed for promotion only to trail 1-0 at the break, it looked ominous for their confidence.
"If you play well, the results are going to come with performances so it's just about finding a consistent basis,” argued Boyes.
"Football's a mad game, you can be on the wrong end of things at times but if we play like that every week, we're going to pick up more points than not."
Of his own display, he said: "I didn't dream about scoring two, I dreamed about scoring and assisting and I thought that was a bit ambitious. I'm absolutely buzzing.
"(Playing higher up) suits me a lot more. I get to play striker in a way!
"The players here are top players so when I'm making runs these boys see me and seem to get me the ball a bit more, I think."
York signed Boyes from Southend United the day after Lindsey arrived as the new coach.
"We found that he got into goal-scoring positions quite a lot for Southend," explained Lindsey. "We felt that maybe he's not scored as many goals as he should have done."
As well as his goals, Boyes was involved in two penalty decisions.
He was surprisingly denied one in the first half, then conceded one after goals from substitute Alex Newby and himself three minutes apart had put the Minstermen 2-1 up.
"That was a stonewall," Boyes said of the first. "He (MacAuley Southam-Hales) headed me in the face.
"Then gave them one. I don't think anyone even appealed for it.
"I feel like I did push him a little bit, but not enough to warrant a penalty. I just stopped him from getting a clean header. I got shoved loads.
"Luckily, I kind of made up for it, I scored again."
Asked if he saw the victory as vindication, Lindsey insisted: "I'm not like that. I'm just here to do my job and I'll do it as well as I can.”