U's:2 City:0

I’m actually beginning to believe that promotion can happen this season.

So far, I’ve been going along happily, enjoying the good results but half expecting the wheels to fall off at some point. However, the way in which we’re beating decent sides on auto-pilot at the moment suggests it’s going to take a fairly major reversal of fortunes to see us miss out on the play offs. And, if Torquay can do us a favour tomorrow night and turn Aldershot over, Jimmy Quinn’s claim that we can still win the title may not be as ludicrous as it first appeared.

For one game only I decamped from the Habbin to the main stand, and was surprised to see stewards advising that it was ticket only. This turned out to be because the bits of the roof had become dislodged by strong winds, meaning half the seats were unusable. Interestlingly, the destruction of the main stand roof was forecast last week by U's blog correspondant Dave Lee - I hope we don't have a saboteur in our ranks...

On the pitch, Mark Beesley returned to the line up in place of the suspended Morrison, facilitating a return to wingbacks with Pitt, not Wolleaston, filling Dan Gleeson’s shoes on the right, and Reedy moving over to the left.

York are no pushovers these days, and came to the Abbey on the back of one defeat in 19 games (at the Gepetto/Pinocchio Glassworld circus a couple of weeks ago). They surprisingly left influential skipper Manny Panther on the bench and, shorn of the Lemu’s towering presence up front, opted for a forward pairing of Onome Sodje and the wily Craig Farrell.

The early exchanges didn’t produce much in the way of shots on goal, with the swirling wind dominating proceedings. Evil headed a Pitt cross over the bar, while for City Nicky Wroe hit a free kick from just outside the box which had all the imagination and quality of a Mark Ronson record (seriously Brit awards judges, what were you thinking?) and flew harmlessly high and wide. York have some good players but too often their final pass let them down, and the home back three, marshalled expertly by Albrighton, were rarely troubled. United enjoyed the advantage in terms of possession, with Beesley and Boylan darting around effectively and Evil once more proving to be a mobile, powerful, fulcrum. The latter had a shot blocked after burrowing into the box, before Stuart Elliot rattled the frame of the goal with a volley which got caught in the wind and left Potter stranded.

Referee Pawson was certainly an improvement on the joker we had last week, but he did make one stunningly bad decision when Pitt was wiped out on the edge of the area by an Anthony Lloyd lunge. Amazingly Mr Pawson deemed the York full back to have played the ball, and waved play on.

Just as it looked as if we’d go into the break at 0-0, a supreme piece of opportunism from Boylan gave us the lead. Craddock looked to have Beesley’s pass over the top under control, but as he and keeper Tom Evans hesitated, Boylan stuck out a left boot and guided the ball into the net. Or if you prefer the BBC version, “Boylan fired home a stunning volley from the edge of the penalty area.”

I would hazard a guess that York’s problems this season have mostly been of a defensive nature, and five minutes after the break they contributed to their own downfall once more. Sodje tried in ill-advised backpass, which was intercepted by Reed, who was enjoying his best game for a number of weeks. His low cross looked to be too hard for Boylan, who was arriving unmarked at the back post, but the little striker somehow managed to get a shot on target from an acute angle that Evans could only deflect high into the net. Hurrah, 2-0.

York introduced Panther immediately after the goal, and switched to a 3-5-2 formation, but it had little effect and United played out the remaining 40 minutes fairly comfortably. The closest the visitors came was an effort from Martin Woolford that took a massive deflection and flew narrowly wide with Potter already committed in the opposite direction.

So having seen off two of the pretenders for the play off positions, United should travel to the Kassam Stadium in confident. Before that, I hope we'll all be getting behind the Gulls tonight and hoping they can open up the title race again.

Man of the Match: Lee Boylan - Plenty of candidates for this prize after what was an excellent team performance, but it was nice to see Boylan pick up a couple of goals as a reward for his hard work.






Sly wind up of the Match: The cheeky two-fingered salute Lee McEvilly directed at Stuart Elliott, after the York midfielder had made a couple of disparaging remarks about Evil's, ahem, ample girth.