Fulham, be assured, deserved
their victory in the squally atmosphere of Bootham Crescent yesterday but the FA Cup dream gets ever harder to fulfil as the wealth gap consumes the
romance, squeezing it like juice from a grape. It took goals from two of their Frenchmen, the £7m Steed Malbranque
and the £11m Steve Marlet, to end the considerable resistance, the
true Cup-tie spirit of endeavour, of York City, a club 82 places beneath
them in League status, and one that may very well expire by the end of this
season.
You can blame, as 7,563 spectators did, the directors who are demanding
£4.5m from any buyer, even the Supporters Trust, by April 1 or they
will give up the struggle to back an enterprise which is seeping £15,000
every week of its endangered existence.
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Fulham Goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar
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Romance? “York City — stolen by greed” read a bright red
banner in the dilapidated stands; that brought the first mighty ovation
of the afternoon in which, if voices could diminish the overwhelming difference
in financial status, yesterday might have done it. But reality tells us
that there is a more than even chance that we were witnesses to the last
FA Cup tie played inside this splendid north Yorkshire walled city. Where
were all the people who cared for their club over the past decade when,
driven ever-downwards by the consequence of the Bosman rule that has taken
away the habit of clubs like this to groom and then sell players for their
survival? The last time York won in the League was three months ago, and
then there were less than a third of the supporters baying their wrath at
the directors, and professing their lifelong addiction to the Minsters.
Give credit to both teams. The ground was an old fashioned quagmire,
the wind blew vicariously, Fulham tried to put a foot on the ball to maintain
their Premiership passing composure, and York, in their tradition, ran
until they dropped, seeking to hustle, to harry, but not illegally, to
kick Fulham out of their stride.
It was 17 years ago to the day that the Minstermen, with a last-minute
penalty, knocked Arsenal out of the Cup on this ground. For maybe 30 seconds
yesterday there were those who thought this was the Second Coming. Then,
playing into the wind, Michael Proctor slipped the ball through the surprised
Fulham rearguard and Richard Cooper had Edwin van der Sar staring down
the barrel of the strangeness of FA Cup fare. The man who has played World
Cup football held his nerve and, second grasp, held the ball.
After that, Fulham did create a superior rhythm. Graham Potter, a left-back
with an appreciable left foot, twice cleared from in front of his own
goalposts. Alan Fettis, the former Northern Ireland international goalkeeper,
made one acrobatic save from Marlet in the air, and two or three from
Malbranque and Louis Saha.
But how long could he defy the inevitable? The answer was just 26 minutes.
Then Saha delightfully dragged the ball away from Lee Bullock with the
sole of his boot before making the opening goal with an angled through
ball that invited Malbranque to bear down on Fettis and this time, with
an uncompromising right-footed cross-shot, to score.
York were anything but acquiescent. For long periods, especially early
in the second half, they gave it everything; endeavour, muscle, and some
rare old kicks that a side less robust than Fulham might have squealed
at.
But not Fulham. They persevered with their ground control, they squandered
opportunities as Fulham exceptionally do, and they made their manager Jean
Tigana squirm in the dugout. No doubt Mohamed al- Fayed, the benefactor
who has, with his considerable millions, spared Fulham a descent equal to
York’s, was not here. His spirit was; for the sugar-daddy of them all
in the football sense, the man who has put £80m into the club in west
London, had attempted to give his portion of yesterday’s gate, probably
totaling£30,000, direct to York City football club.
The York chairman, Douglas Craig, who is presiding over the sale or die
embers of his reign, aloofly refused. Perhaps he had a point, this man
who astonishingly sat during the week in judgment of whether Wimbledon
should be allowed to move their football club from south London to Milton
Keynes.
| Match
Stats |
York |
Fulham |
| Goal
attempts |
11 |
18 |
| On
Target |
5 |
7 |
| Hit
woodwork |
0 |
0 |
| Fouls |
10 |
9 |
| Offsides |
6 |
6 |
| Corners |
8 |
6 |
| Yellows |
1 |
2 |
| Reds |
0 |
0 |
| source:
www.sports.com |
|
What are the FA thinking about? A man is either a football man to his
roots, or, like the chairman of York City, prepared to sell out.
The match, at least on the deteriorating turf, was never that. Van der
Sar had one heart-stopping moment when he fluffed a clearance straight
to the opposition, but he survived it: however, York is the real club
in the business of survival.
Only yesterday it was extinguished five minutes from time when that Dutch
goalkeeper drop-kicked the ball three-quarters of the length of the field.
Marlet controlled it exquisitely, out-paced Mike Basham elegantly, held
his composure, and allowed goalkeeper Fettis to come to him. When the
keeper did as he was bid, the Frenchman, whose fee was three times the
price on the club he was playing against, nonchalantly finished off the
contest with an accurate low shot.
Fare thee well, then, York City? There is a meeting of the Save York
City brigade next Friday evening. They need the kind of support that overpowered
the ground yesterday. Time will tell if it is successful or if this is
the end of the dream.
York: Fettis, Edmondson, Basham, Hocking, Hobson (Duffield 77),
Potter, Cooper, Brass, Bullock, Nogan (Mathie 83), Proctor.
Subs Not Used: Howarth, Smith, Richardson.
Booked: Nogan.
Fulham: Van der Sar, Finnan, Melville, Goma, Brevett, Legwinski,
Collins (Goldbaek 74), Knight, Malbranque, Saha, Marlet.
Subs Not Used: Taylor, Ouaddou, Willock, Stolcers.
Booked: Marlet(61,d) Collins(71,f).
Goals: Malbranque 26, Marlet 85.
Att: 7,563 Ref: J Winter (Stockton-on-Tees).
Source S. Times by Tim Hobbs