Standing boom only

But, should City of York Council grant outline planning permission later this month to build a new community stadium, it has been suggested that the traditional rally call could be adopted as a campaign slogan, aimed at incorporating standing areas at the proposed Monks Cross development.

Supporters of football and rugby league in York have, of course, a long tradition of watching sport on their feet and don’t want that to change for a variety of reasons.

Their crumbling current homes – Bootham Crescent and Huntington Stadium – both cater fully for those who prefer to stand rather than sit.

However, because the Football Foundation’s Football Stadia Improvement Fund is to contribute money towards Oakgate’s planned venture, there is a stipulation the new ground must be an all-seater arena.

York City, as a football club, are understandably reluctant to challenge any criteria laid down by the body that issued them with a £2 million loan when previous chairman Douglas Craig threatened to evict the Minstermen after setting up a holding company under his directorship.

That loan, which effectively enabled the club to buy back its home, will revert into a grant once relocation is secured but the Football Supporters Federation, whose officials visited Bootham Crescent’s Pitchside Bar this week, believe it is time the Football Foundation relaxed its stance on all-seater stadia at every level of the game.

Under legislation outlined in the Green Guide – a government-funded guidance book on specator safety written by the Football Licensing Authority – teams from outside the top two tiers in the English game are permitted standing areas.

Any club without an all-seater arena promoted to the Championship, meanwhile, can only operate for three years – consecutive or otherwise – at that level before making necessary upgrades.

Peterborough, with their London Road base, are at the present time weighing up a dilemma faced by Scunthorpe last season, when relegation to League One probably spared the club from attempting to fund ground improvements that they could not afford.

Fulham also performed for two years in the Premier League before being forced to replace their terraced areas with seats, leaving the rules surely open to challenge in their current form.

For instance, at what point does the same stadium that has been issued with a safety certificate for three years suddenly become unsafe?

Furthermore, if the regulations imposed on the top two divisions are intended to address potential problems presented by bigger crowds, how logical does that become when the likes of the Sheffield clubs and Charlton, with their sizeable away followings, not to mention Norwich and Leeds before them, are plying their trade in League One?

Doncaster and Shrewsbury are recent examples of clubs who wanted standing sections at their new homes but were handicapped in that respect by their use of FSIF grant money.

In City’s case, the requirement for an all-seater stadium also seems sadly remote, given the club has only ever spent two seasons in the second echelon of this country’s football pyramid back in the mid-1970s.

Even if current manager Gary Mills could mastermind a hat-trick of consecutive promotions starting this May, there would be no need, under the current rules, for standing to be abolished at Minstermen matches until 2018.

By then, the FSF predict safe standing areas will have returned to many of this country’s top football grounds.

Rail seats have already been introduced successfully in Germany at clubs like Werder Bremen, Stuttgart and Bayer Leverkusen.

The seats fold back upright on to rails that run the whole length of rows, allowing people to stand without the threat of surges from behind.

Celtic have signalled their intention to flout Westminster law by implementing rail seats at their Parkhead home next season, while Aston Villa and Wolves have both suggested publically they would like to follow suit and most of their top-flight adversaries are understood to be expressing the same desire behind closed doors.

The issue of safe standing, meanwhile, was on the agenda of the last Premier League meeting.

A change at the top of the game would no doubt filter down and help City in their present predicament.

For that to happen, however, it could ultimately need a sports minister brave enough to reverse a decision made in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster despite the Taylor Report, conducted after the death of 96 fans in that stadium, concluding that the tragic loss of life was primarily caused by overcrowding, poor policing and bad stadium layout, not standing.

Fundamentally, though, fans of City who want to lobby for standing areas at any new ground would only be falling in line with what the authorities believe to be appropriate for a club of its stature.

As Martin O’Hara, from the FSF’s Yorkshire division, pointed out at the Pitchside Bar meeting: “You can already have standing areas outside the two top divisions so, for York City to have them, would only be complying with the Green Guide.

“Standing apparently only becomes unsafe when you have played for three years in the Championship.”

Kerr taking closer orders as term gets to sharp end

Joint player of the month winners Chris Smith, left, and Ben Gibson, right, receive their awards from City fan Ian Muchall

SCOTT Kerr has moved to within a point of season-long leader Jason Walker at the top of The Press Player of the Year standings.

The 30-year-old midfielder picked up a point as our third-highest rated player during Tuesday’s 0-0 home draw with Tamworth following on from the three he collected as our man of the match in last weekend’s 2-0 win over Hayes & Yeading at Bootham Crescent.

Dan Parslow, meanwhile, has moved into the leaderboard’s top ten after his man-of-the-match display against Tamworth on the back of the point he received from the Hayes match.

Other points towards the contest went to Danny Pilkington (two) and Lanre Oyebanjo (two) as our second-highest rated players from the Tamworth and Hayes games respectively.

Visitors to our website also agreed that Parslow and Kerr were the star men during the last two games, earning both players the two bonus points on offer from each match towards the Player of the Month competition.

To be in with a chance of presenting the March Player of the Month with his prize at a City home game, vote for your man of the match from today’s FA Trophy semi-final, first leg clash against Luton or Tuesday’s league match at Grimsby.

The Press Player of the Year standings (do not include Player of the Month bonus points): Walker 28 points, Kerr 27, Blair 25, Smith 20, Ingham 18, McLaughlin 18, Meredith 15, Chambers 14, Fyfield 14, Parslow 11, McGurk 10, Moké 9, Oyebanjo 8, Challinor 7, Boucaud 5, Gibson 4, Pilkington 4, Reed 4, Doig 3, Blinkhorn 2, Henderson 1.

March Player of the Month standings: Kerr 6, Parslow 6, Oyebanjo 2, Pilkington 2.

Goals: Walker 16, Blair 15, McLaughlin 10, Chambers 9, Reed 9, Challinor 3, Smith 3, Blinkhorn 2, Fyfield 2, Moké 2, Pilkington 2, Ashikodi 1, Boucaud 1, Henderson 1, Kerr 1, McGurk 1, Meredith 1, own goal 1, Oyebanjo 1.

Assists: McLaughlin 12, Chambers 11, Blair 8, Meredith 7, Moké 7, Pilkington 7, Reed 6, Walker 6, Challinor 4, Kerr 4, Oyebanjo 3, Potts 2, Henderson 1, McGurk 1, Parslow 1, Smith 1.

Bad boys: Smith 10 yellow cards; McGurk 8 yellow; Challinor, Kerr both 6 yellow; Meredith 5 yellow; Boucaud, Walker both 1 red, 3 yellow; McLaughlin 4 yellow; Parslow, Reed both 3 yellow; Fyfield, Moké, Oyebanjo all 2 yellow; Brown 1 red; Ashikodi, Chambers, Ingham all 1 yellow.