Walk the high wire for so long and collapse is inevitable.

So it proved as York City suffered the cruellest descent of their history. The one - the only - time they tumble into the bottom four all this season, they thud unceremoniously into the basement. Come the year 2000 City will spend it among the lowest rung of the professional game. It puts the ill into Millennium.

However, the Minstermen have no-one to blame for their last-day anguish when the doomsday scenario most dreaded came hideously true.

Too many times as the second half of the decade fingered its way to a new century the misfiring Minstermen have clung on and scrabbled about. They've been regularly swaying on the fraying rope bridge overhanging the precipice that it was always going to break.

Where it eventually snapped just added to the cruelty of it all. Manchester City's Maine Road was packed to its rafters, the hosts en route to the play-offs in front of their biggest crowd for five years.

Such volume-filled, full-throated surroundings will next season be replaced by trawls to such outlying outposts as Torquay, Plymouth, Exeter, Carlisle, Hartlepool.

And what stuck more in the craw was that the Yorkshire outfit did not look overawed or inferior to their Lancashire rivals. The final scoreline was a flattery that neither team deserved, widening due to York's gamble to throw more men forward in search of goals.

But what the margin between the teams did illustrate was that York have been the poorest and most porous of defences throughout 1998-99. Goals conceded - 80.

Whoever gets the manager's job permanently, that's where the major problem lies - tightening defence, though that does not necessarily mean a dismantling of the rearguard. It's a collective 1 to 11 concern, not just that of the backline.

Seven minutes to go of the Maine Road misery and the Division Two lifeline was still visible.

Trailing then just 2-0, a scoreline by which Oldham were also winning, York's hold was true as Wycombe were locked in a blank draw at Lincoln City. Then as Jeff Whitley bagged the Blues' third goal news filtered to the press-box that Wycombe had scored. The rest was sheer agony.

What had gone before also highlighted the sorry saga of the bulk of the season. City creating chances, but not taking them. Man City finding gaps and exploiting them to the full.

The sense of occasion was that Man City were going to party. Before kick-off each player clad in 'lazer-blue' took hold of a mighty white banner proclaiming to the home fans in a centre-circle cartwheel "you're the best and we know you are. Thank you for you're support." Spin City indeed.

Once play started Man City were spun around as York, prompted by the snap tackling and deft distribution of Scott Jordan and Mark Tinkler tried to make best use of Maine Road's wide open spaces and the pace of Rodney Rowe and Marc Williams.

But then came the concession of a needless goal, 'keeper Bobby Mimms culpable.

As Chris Fairclough shepherded Michael Brown out by the corner of the penalty box and by-line Mimms dashed over. Brown wriggled into position to whip over a cross and with the goal unguarded Paul Dickov had the easiest of tasks to nod into an empty net.

Still, York menaced. Tinkler twice splintered the home defence to find Williams. His first assist ended with Craig Skinner's shot deflecting off Gerard Wiekens to balloon up and be clasped by Nick Weaver. Then Williams' volleyed pass to Rowe induced a flashing finish inches off target.

City never came closer than soon after the replacement of caretaker-chief Neil Thompson by Neil Tolson, whose first flick fed Williams.

He waltzed past his marker into the area, but the low shot was with his unfavoured right foot and it struck Weaver's legs rather than the net.

City gambled yet further with Alan Pouton on for Skinner. But the goal they so desperately sought never materialised and their task increased when a wall-pass between Dickov and Horlock ended with the latter's fierce drive low into the net.

As the trapdoor opened Man City cranked up the lever. Whitley walloped home from the edge of the area, then Danny Allsopp muscled past a jaded Barry Jones to slide in under Mimms.

The results all feared were not confirmed until several minutes after the final whistle.

Sobs from crestfallen duo Martin Garratt and Rodney Rowe painfully painted the picture of despair. The final-afternoon phenomenon of transistors cupped to ears straining for crackled relay of favourable results elsewhere was over, as was City's six-year tenure in Division Two.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.