U's:1 Minstermen:2

Bah, who wants to go to Stoke anyway? It's freezing cold, their fans are miserable gits, and Dave Kitson doesn't even play for them anymore. Unlucky York.

Having said that, United were the unlucky ones in a second round FA Cup game which they dominated, save for a mad three minute spell just before half time which ultimately put the visitors in round three. Highlights here, courtesy of MatBro51:



The early signs were promising, with our new young midfield pairing of Ives and McAuley showing up well in the middle of the park and the Pittster carrying on his impressive form of Tuesday night. The only disappointment was that, for all our possession and passing, we didn't force their keeper Michael Ingham into action very often. Holroyd put a header wide and a shot over after latching onto centres from Pitt, while clever play from Ives saw wriggle away from a couple of challenges in the box, but his flighted centre was just too high for Holroyd and Crow.

Part of our problem was that York looked solid as a rock at the back, and while their midfield wasn't up to much, the front pairing of Michael Rankine and Richard Brodie were giving us a lot of problems. After about ten minutes I made the mistake of reasserting my view that, based on his time at Rushden, Rankine is a "spectacularly inept" footballer. He of course rammed that back down my throat by opening the scoring in a fashion that was just plain spectacular. Chesting down a long ball from Ingham, he turned Gleeson and rattled a shot into the top corner from 25 yards. On the day I felt Potter possibly could have done better, but having seen it on tele he would've done well to save what was a really powerful effort. 0-1.

Moments later it was two. A United corner was cleared, and Brodie broke away down the left. Leaving a couple of players in his wake, he loped into the area, pursued by Willmott, who clumsily bundled him over near the edge of the box. You have to suspect that if Carden had been on the field the York top scorer would have been stopped in his tracks further up the pitch, but he dusted himself off to stroke the penalty low to the right of Potter who, as usual, helpfully dived out of the way. 0-2.

Everyone knows we're at our most dangerous when 2-0 down, and in the second period we laid siege to the visitors goal, winning numerous corners and free kicks but again failing to warm Ingham's gloves. Ives hammered a shot just wide from the edge of the area, McAuley failed to connect with a corner with the goal gaping, and then put a shot just wide at the far post.

On the rare occasions that the ball left the York half, Brodie and Rankine had taken to falling over at the merest hint of contact, a tactic which got them plenty of sympathy from baldy ref Mr Ruston. The injustice of it all eventually got too much for Hats, who crudely felled Brodie on half way and ran off grinning as he received an inevitable yellow card. Brodie was soon back on his feet, and almost put the match beyond doubt when, despite looking suspiciously offside, he raced onto a hanging through ball and poked a shot just the wrong side of the post.

By now Lingy had introduced Adam Marriott, who joined Crow and Holroyd in attack, and United kept up the pressure, halving the deficit in the 83rd minute. The goal came from the unlikely source of Tonks, who latched onto a half-cleared corner and drilled in a low half volley which found the net via the inside of the post.

It set up a tense final seven minutes, but despite a few oohs and ahhs from the crowd, we couldn't force an equalisers, and after Ingham had clutched a final corner from Willmott, Mr Ruston signalled the end of the match and York's progress into round three.

So despite playing a good deal better than they did against Rushden last Tuesday, United's cup dreams are over for another year. Never mind though, at least we've still got the Trophy...

Man of the Match: Courtney Pitt - Dangerous both on the flank and in the more central position he adopted in the second half. Had a hand in most of United's best moves.