Rochdale v York City: Stuart Maynard - Roses rivals deserve to go up after 'incredible' year as system is exposed
ROSES rivals York City and Rochdale are pitted together in an occasion for the ages at the Crown Oil Stadium on Saturday lunch-time.
On the final day of another extraordinary National League season, something has to give.
The Minstermen can end their decade-long exile from the English Football League by avoiding defeat.
A Dale victory would consign York to the play-offs for the second successive year after registering another huge points tally in the regular campaign. It's the mother of all last-match showdowns.
Should things go York's way, then manager Stuart Maynard – whose side hold a two-point advantage over the Lancastrians after amassing 107 points in 45 games – will be able to savour the biggest achievement of his career.
But whether it is him or Dale counterpart Jim McNulty who is victorious afterwards, sympathy for the vanquished will be manifest.
Maynard said: "For us both to be on 100-plus points this season is incredible and both clubs deserve to go up because of the season they've had.
"But obviously we knew before the season started that it was only one up automatically and one through the play-offs.
"There's that heartbreak for one team at the final whistle of the game – knowing that with the level that you've performed at consistently all season and in any other season probably within your lifetime, you'd have won the league."
The main story really surrounds the loser today, given the general consensus across football that a situation where only one team can be automatically promoted from the fifth tier – as opposed to two – is grossly unfair. Both clubs issued a statement on Friday.
Maynard commented: "It is what it is. It's not ideal. We've been banging on about the three-up, three-down campaign.
"It does need to change as there's a lot of big ex-league clubs who – when they get relegated out of League Two and then come into the National League – find it incredibly hard like Wrexham and Notts County.
"They didn't come down and go straight back up. It's a division that's the toughest to get out of for me in the English pyramid. It's incredibly hard.
"When you look at some of the names, eventually it took them five to six years to get out of the division. York's wait is ten seasons. For a club of York's size to still be in and around the National League is tough."