York City: What was all the fuss about as character and unconditional love combine for winning start
York City made their Football League return with a sense of trepidation but sometimes, doing things that make your nervous can turn out wonderfully. Saturday's 3-2 win over Bristol Rovers certainly did.
The trepidation was not about if they would be good enough to step up to a level they had not played at since they last faced the Gas, in April 2016. The record of teams who go up from the Conference is astonishingly good. In 39 years since promotion was introduced, not one has been relegated in season one.
Bristol Rovers are second favourites to win League Two this season. As their manager Steve Evans attested, York outplayed them.
Instead it all came from York's first match of 2026-27, a 2-0 home defeat to Crawley Town in the preliminary round of the League Cup.
The closing stages were played to chants of Stuart Maynard's name, and of "sacked in the morning" and "you don't know what you're doing" at his successor after Maynard was shown the door in pre-season.
This time Maynard's name did not get chanted all day. There was not a murmur when co-owner Julie-Anne Uggla showily danced on the field with debutant, man-of-the-match and two-goal scorer Harry Boyes.
A 8,156 crowd came to support.
When Joe Grey's dangerous cross was headed away in the ninth minute, Lindsey applauded the South Stand’s encouragement. His failure to acknowledge them post-Crawley had only added fuel to the fire.
And the footballing gods tested that support and the belief of a squad who made late winners – or very late promotion-securing equalisers – a trademark last season.
Allowed 78 per cent of the ball by visitors content to sit off, York were by far the better team in the first half. Bristol Rovers went in 1-0 up.
Even before Clinton Mola scored – from far too much space – Boyes was denied a clear penalty.
As against Crawley, a difference in ruthlessness was on show. Was a team led by the wily Evans going to "old man" York out of three points?
Perhaps even more importantly, would going behind light a spark on the terraces again?
No and no.
Two goals in three minutes – the first by the substitute Lindsey boldly added in the first half – put York where they should be, only for Boyes to concede a penalty so soft the Gas did not appeal for it. No team managed by Evans has ever been shy.
Bradford City loanee Tommy Wright, also off the bench, converted from 12 yards and with 78 minutes gone, doubt crept back in.
In a way it was the perfect script.
Left wing-back Boyes, whose precise finish first put York in front, popped up at the far post on the other side to head in Alex Newby's nod-back.
"I made a run and just stayed there," he said, seemingly as baffled as anyone after scoring twice as many goals in 17 minutes as the last four seasons combined.
Lindsey also learnt something about his permutations.
As good as York had been in the first half, Brad Young did not make a serious save. Ollie Pearce tried his luck from 12 yards inside Rovers' half, then the left wing.
With half-time approaching, Lindsey abandoned his gamble on the fitness of centre-forward Dipo Akinyemi, deputising for the more seriously injured Josh Stones.
Akinyemi looked as if he could easily have made it to half-time, but Lindsey moved Pearce from inside-left to centre-forward, and brought on Newby.
"At half-time we were probably happier," argued Boyes. "We felt like we deserved to be up and we knew if we played like that second half there'd only be one winner."
Pearce, scorer of 35 goals last season, missed two good chances as the No 9. Much better to miss good ones then optimistic ones.
Newby touched Joe Grey's ball in to put York level after 60 minutes, and set up Boyes' winner.
In between time Pearce did the centre-forward's job of laying off a ball stabbed into his feet. Boyes controlled and finished brilliantly.
In Newby, Boyes and Pearce, Lindsey may have stumbled on a triangle that works perfectly. On the right, Joe Felix was magnificent at wing-back, even beating Mola – eight inches taller – to a header. Inside him, Grey was pretty good too.
"It was a good performance throughout and gives me something to think about,” reflected Lindsey.
Now, instead of nervously travelling to a team two divisions above them last season, York bounce into a Rotherham United side on the ropes after two defeats from two.
What was all the worry about?
York City: McNally; Williams, Johnson, Kitching; Felix, Banks, A Hunt (Read 68), Boyes (Medley 83); Grey, Pearce; Akinyemi (Newby 44). Unused substitutes: Fallowfield, King, Sykes-Kenworthy, McArthur.
Bristol Rovers: Young; Southam-Hales, Gough, Balmer, Harbottle, Sparkes; Smallwood (Leigh 61), Mola; Cavegn, Forde (Kamwa 84), Quigley (Russell-Denny 68). Unused substitutes: Kilgour, Aitchison, Rijks, Binns.
Referee: T Nield (Huddersfield).
TALKING POINTS
Uncomfortable viewing: Big screens are not supposed to replay controversial incidents in the Football League but when referee Tom Nield bafflingly chose not to give York City a sixth-minute penalty, it was shown over and over above the head of Alex Hunt as he took the corner given instead. Nield would have been looking right at it. Such replays were notable by their absence in the second half, when a controversial penalty was awarded to Bristol Rovers.
Making amends: Having got a hand to Clinton Mola’s goal, York’s debutant goalkeeper Alfie McNally might feel he should have kept it out, but a fine low save minutes later got him back on track.
Banks dilemma: Scott Lindsey’s 3-4-2-1 formation had Ollie Banks usually taking the ball off the centre-backs’ toenails when last season the midfielder played more box to box – and very effectively. He got forward more in the second half and it was his ball Alex Newby headed to Harry Boyes. It can be done from there.