LOYAL York City supporter Alex Bedingham has calculated that he gave up nearly a week of his life travelling to his team's Nationwide Conference games last season.

Bedingham, who doubles as City's mascot Yorkie the Lion at certain matches, has also estimated that he spent close to £2,000 attending all 24 away fixtures and covered more than 7,500 miles in an often fruitless pursuit.

The Minstermen scored a pitiful 20 goals on their travels and picked up a paltry 16 points.

By Bedingham's reckoning, that means City's away supporters travelled 388 miles to celebrate every goal at opposition stadia in 2004/2005 and 474 miles for each point.

Or, perhaps more alarmingly, they had to shell out £87.50 for every away goal their side scored and a staggering £109.38 for each point.

Bedingham, however, admitted that he will be making the same pilgrimage again next season.

He said: "It's programmed into you. It gets to a stage when you can't do anything else. What else could you do on a Saturday?

"I feel like that now the season is over and, as bad as it might have been, I still can't wait until the next one.

"Once we went down to the Conference we knew it wouldn't be pleasant but you can't stop going. I did feel very let down at times last season and you lose your rag a few times but you can't jump ship and I'm just hoping things are going to get better."

Bedingham believes £1,750 was emptied from his wallet travelling the 7,716 miles to watch City play away from KitKat Crescent last season.

A total of 163 hours was also spent on the Harrogate Minstermen's minibus - his "Sweet Chariot" to away games.

One particular outing did, however, provide justification in any internal debate over the worthwhile nature of his season-long venture.

He said: "Probably the best away experience of the season was the whole day at Dagenham.

"We had a really good trip down, followed by a few drinks in a good pub at Swancombe and then it's not very often you see City win 3-0 away these days. In fact, it was the first away victory since Rochdale at Christmas.

"However, there are a few contenders for the worst moment but the Paul Crichton incident at Gravesend stands out. It really struck home how far we had fallen and how fast. To be 4-0 down and have your own goalkeeper having a go at the fans really was too much."

Updated: 10:54 Tuesday, May 10, 2005