York City: John Askey brings end to ‘doom and gloom’

The Minstermen deservedly beat Boston United 2-0 in Saturday’s Conference North promotion final.

Having inherited a seemingly hopeless cause in November and overseen promotion in the club’s first season at their new stadium, Askey was delighted to see how much joy he had brought to a 7,448 crowd.

“To see people going away with smiles on their faces - that wasn’t the case six months ago,” said Askey. “There was a lot of doom and gloom so to have a hand in helping to turn that around is very pleasing. For a football manager that’s what it’s all about.

“If I can help York City to get where they need to be, I’ll be very happy.

“This is the first time I’ve worked at this level but I know from playing and managing against York it’s a city with a great reputation in football. They should be a league team but it’s not easy now because there’s a lot of clubs out there with huge budgets.

“We’ve come to a new ground and it’s a new start for everybody, hopefully that will be the springboard.

“When you can get gates of 7,500 there’s huge potential. I hope anyone who’s come in the last few weeks is looking forward to coming again.

“We’re getting a lot more younger supporters now. I remember going to the old ground a few years ago and thinking, ‘In 10 years’ time they won’t have any more supporters because they’re all over 70!’”

Of the final itself, Askey said: “I don’t think it was ever going to be a fantastic football game but the players managed it really well – they competed, played the better football at times and I thought we were worthy of the win.

“In the second half I think we showed how high our fitness levels were.”