AB Knight

SeriousaboutRL are reporting it’s a playing position until the end of the season. I loved what he did for York but it’s more than 2 years ago since he played his last game for us and even if he was offered to us I doubt Fordy was interested, he’s moved on and so have we. Regardless hope he does well for Donny.

Speaking of a lift home, after waiting 15mins at the park and ride for a bus (I’ve never liked waiting) we decided to walk it, only took us 40mins to get back to Stonebow at a relaxed pace.

There is probably a reason for it but York no longer announce the crowd which is a shame. We therefore have AB Knight’s (unofficial) crowd figure which today was 1650.

Another bit of praise for BJB who I thought ran the ball well today and looked solid.

A really impressive win, thought we were unlucky to go in 20-12 at half time but that second half was really well managed. Nikau looks a better player since his return from North Wales, O’Hagan played like the guy who controlled the game in that first match of the season against Sheffield and our forwards stepped up. Doesn’t look like we give crowds our nowadays, so I’ll go with 1650. I totally accept as a team we’ll concede penalties, we’ll make infringements and have poor discipline at times....I just wish referees were clear with their signalling, I’m fed up of looking at referees wondering why we’ve been penalised.

Without COVID and the farcical ticket situation at LNER stadium I think York would currently be averaging 3000. In SL 5000 (IMO) is very achievable especially as both Hull games, the Leeds game and the Cas would be close to or would sell out. And I doubt it would be a man and a dog against Wigan, St Helen’s etc. BUT....York are a long way off being ready on the pitch and certain areas need tightening up off the pitch. Also as a sport I’d prefer to be talking about 5 figure attendances rather than potential 5k attendances.

Another figure picked from thin air, oh frigid one. You are Nigel Farage and I claim my £400k.

It never rains on me Need a good kicking game and a good start just like the last match.

York are -8 on the handicap today.

On a related note I stopped being a Cas season ticket holder because so many games were moved. Then I moved out of the area and still went to most matches but just got fed up of matches being moved with a few weeks notice. Ironically my first York game was against Coventry....on a Wednesday night! Cas’ loss is York’s gain....I think?! I’m just pleased 95% (for once statto here is estimating) of York home matches are on a Sunday and most away matches are on a Sunday. I don’t mind Saturday night matches that much its when they get moved to Saturday afternoons, Friday evenings, Thursday evenings etc.

Interesting, when York released the fixtures back in February it was given as 3pm on the Sunday - you can see the fixture list in our sticky section. Likewise Featherstone’s fixture list at the time listed it as 3pm too: https://www.featherstonerovers.co.uk/news/2021-fixture-list-released-I0whm I guess at some point, maybe back in April, maybe even before, the fixture was changed. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter that much to me anyway. I just hope it’s a close match again.

The fixture was always at 3pm on Sunday 15th August until they rearranged it. Not to worry, there’s clubs who’ve had it worse, I think it was either London or Leeds who had their game at Catalans rearranged with something like 10 days notice, meaning fans who’d booked transport and accommodation had a nice holiday but missed the game!

Attendance 4357. Last time out when fans could attend this fixture drew 7483. Next season will tell us so much about where we are at as a club and as a sport.

What worries me is the lack of initiatives, I don’t think many clubs work together and share ideas. Maybe I’m off topic but I was due to attend Sheffield vs York yesterday, to be played at Doncaster after the Doncaster vs Hunslet match. Now, the match was postponed so none of this really matters but.... I bought a ticket for the Sheffield game at £20. I hoped it would get me into the Doncaster game too but was told I’d need a separate ticket at £12. Why can’t the clubs work together, a joint ticket for those who want them? I had business down near Doncaster anyway and would’ve still attended Doncaster vs Hunslet (which sounded like a great match) to get my RL fix, but instead because I only had a ticket for the Sheffield match it was refunded. At some point clubs need to work together, share ideas, come up with initiatives before its too late. And before anyone says it, free tickets are rarely the answer - I know of a club that gave free tickets for a match, they had to collect on the day before the game and in return all people had to do was write their name and email on a sheet of paper on a clipboard. One of the columns asked if the club could use their details to contact them for future matches. Even though it was explained to each person that it helped the club, approximately 9 out of 10 said no. I often see people say ‘do free tickets and get everyone’s details to encourage them back’ but when 90% refuse, what good is it really doing? Saying that it sounds like Barrow are doing well because they are making it more of an event, not just an 80 minute match.

Huge game on Sunday. Widnes are hit and miss, a bit like ourselves although I hope our improved performance at Wembley and then the good win against Swinton has given us some confidence and belief. I’m still confused about the table and points percentages, if I understand correctly win on Sunday and results go our way we can go up to 8th - nothing to write home about but suddenly we can start looking up the table. Not sure where we are with injuries and isolating. I was really happy with the performance of the 17 against Swinton, I wouldn’t change too much. Last of all I know it’s not the Knights doing but if I’ve worked it out right it’s the 9th game at the LNER with spectators (6 for YCK, 3 for YCFC), I really hope things run smoother and no more reports of people heading home because of the queues. Those running the stadium have to get it right as we soon welcome Bradford Bulls here.

Congratulations on your first league win of the season against Dewsbury Rats today, hopefully you can push on now and use that confidence to get a few more wins. Well deserved!

Well the weather has certainly cooled off a bit, and I’m having a few cold ones after a fantastic afternoons entertainment listening to some good rugby league matches. Later on I might even have an ice cream to be even cooler. Speaking of which, anyone seen coolie?

Am I not right in saying once 7 players have COVID that club is entitled to postpone the game? So it doesn’t matter if you have 100 players in your squad, once 7 are out of action you can postpone. It’s a tricky one, because on the one hand if you’re playing Swindon (and I say this with all due respect) and you have 7 players off, you’ll still fancy your chances so will decide to play....I think Ford was quoted as saying York could’ve called last Sunday’s game off. On the flip side if you’re playing Fev or Toulouse, you won’t be quite as eager to get the game on.

Updated. Try Scorers: Marsh - 12 K. Dixon - 11 Atkins - 8 Goals K. Dixon - 77

I don’t mind either team winning, but I have a feeling Toulouse will win. Then again I’m no longer a betting man POR what kind of attendance are you expecting?

For whatever reason York stopped announcing crowds a while ago. I think they’ve only announced attendances at the first 2 of our 5 home games so far this season. If I had to guess, I’d say Sunday was about 1500.

Just bought ours (£20 + 50p booking fee) through the Sheffield site. You can buy tickets for the first match (Doncaster vs Hunslet) through the Doncaster site below for £12 BUT I don’t know if that covers the York game as well. Looks like those tickets are all in 1 block - last thing you’d want is a bunch of stewards escorting everyone out of that block after Donny stuff Hunslet, not worth the risk for the sake of £8 in my opinion. https://tickets.clubdoncaster.co.uk/en-GB/categories/donshome

Cheers Andy. Any idea on the penalty against York when we did a tap restart and the touch judge came on, penalty went to Swinton who subsequently scored their 2nd try? Not for the first time the referee gave no indication what the penalty was for. What I’d give to see Thierry Alibert back with his over the top signalling!

Was a red hot performance, oh cold one. Onwards and upwards

Can’t see anything untoward on the official Bulls Twitter page. I’m intrigued now......