Stephen Lewis talks to York City chaplain turned footballing writer Chris Cullwick about an epic struggle a long way from the World Cup.

CHRIS Cullwick will never forget York City's last game of the 2003/4 season. It ended as a 2-1 home defeat to Leyton Orient: a result which ensured City's relegation from the Football League after 75 years.

It should have been a wake: yet it wasn't.

Instead, Chris remembers, the City fans "streamed onto the pitch to applaud the players and the board as if we had been promoted, not relegated".

It was an emotional moment as Chris, the club's chaplain, remembers. The club's young player manager, Chris Brass, was even moved to tears by the fans' response.

There were plenty of bemused national Press at that game, wondering just what was going on, Chris recalls. But it was simple. "What they the fans were applauding was far more important than relegation. It was the fact that we still had a professional football club to support in the city."

It is often said football is the new religion, Chris says. It is certainly true that our football heroes have become objects of worship; our football stadia like cathedrals. Even in a small city such as York, Chris points out, football and following the club is a part of the meaning of life for many fans.

So when, in those dark days of 2002 and 2003, the future of the club was under threat betrayed, in many fans' eyes, first by Douglas Craig and then by John Bachelor some fans were close to despair.

One told Chris: "I do not know what I would do when Saturday afternoon comes round; there would be a big hole in my life."

Then the fight-back began, as supporters mobilised to take over control of the club and ensure its survival.

Chris has chronicled all the passion, the agony, the hopes and fears of those two extraordinary years in "Going down; going down; going down", his contribution to Footballing Lives, a collection of articles about the beautiful game written by chaplains of clubs across the country.

The chaplains of big clubs such as Manchester United and Liverpool have all contributed, alongside those of relative minnows such as York and Rushden & Diamonds.

But while York may be a small club, it has a big heart, and Chris's chapter reflects that.

He himself has been a fan of the beautiful game since, aged 16, he watched his home club Swindon Town beat mighty Arsenal 3-1 in the 1969 League Cup Final. "That was a fantastic afternoon, and I was hooked," he says.

He has brought all that love of the game to his chronicle of City's struggle for survival, in which he played a role, proudly marching with the huge red "Save City" banner.

The fight was about more than rescuing a small professional football club. It was about the heart and soul of the community.

Chris gets to the heart and soul of the club in his contribution to this unusual and compelling book. A true footballing story that puts Wayne Rooney's foot in proper perspective.

Footballing Lives, edited by Jeffrey Heskins and Matt Baker and including a chapter by Chris Cullwick, is published by Canterbury Press, priced £9.99.