It's Richard the Lionheart

At first floodlight it looked like the 'Great Escape', but by game end it was a heady 'Escape to Victory'.

And there wasn't even a monosyllabic Sly Stallone in earshot, or mercifully, in sight having to complete an improbable Weetabix-type penalty save.

The heroes of the hour and a half were all clad in the mighty red of York City and fully deserved nominations for best support.

From sleet-soaked start to finish they were as tenacious as scrap-yard hounds, hunting and striking like a pack to bring down their Bristol Rovers hosts.

And there's a bigger quarry back on the landscape. It may be distant on the horizon, but by dint of the endeavour and conviction poured out last night City may yet be able to board the play-off bandwagon.

Certainly their morale will have been sufficiently stoked by their win at the Memorial Ground, where they could have been swamped by a torrential start by the Pirates only to counter with a riveting determination.

Enough teeth were gritted by City to have worn down several pairs of molars. And once they took a hold on the game for a second time they were never going to let it be prised away.

In the vanguard of the resistance movement was new 'red leader' Richard Cresswell. His was a towering display.

He has never lacked willingness to chase lost causes, expend exhaustive effort, or offer himself as a battering ram. But Cresswell is much more than just a workhorse. He has a thoroughbred touch as he showed when he first flared in first-team duty.

Rovers painfully discovered all those qualities, which were so crucial to City's conquest. Never was the entire Cresswell performance, and that too of City, better encapsulated than in the goal that ultimately sealed the points for the Minstermen in a quite scintillating 72nd minute.

The left-wing axis between Paul Stephenson and Neil Thompson, a boon which has blossomed since the latter's arrival on loan from Barnsley, splintered the Pirates' defence yet again.

Thompson fired in a low cross and in a blink of an eye Cresswell adroitly, accurately and impudently swished the ball in at the near-post with a back-heel.

It was an execution of skill to drool over. No wonder he cupped his ear in anticipation of the adulation that erupted from the pocket of City fans in the Centenary Stand. Goal of the Centenary? You bet.

A goal was never more deserved. Cresswell's contribution was as immense as it was impressive. He was always a 'get-out' ball to short passes from midfield. He was ever a powerful pursuer of heftier punts into the channels as City best sought to adapt to the wide open spaces of a mud-scarred surface softened further by a foul night that forced the pitch markings to be re-done at half-time.

However, few marks would have been afforded City's chances on evidence of the first 20 minutes. The game could have been all over in the time taken to cook a hard-boiled egg.

The 'Gas-heads', as the hosts are affectionately known, opened at furnace-pressure. Blistering through a City rearguard that trembled as much as it did at home to Wigan, only the crossbar and a miss by gale of a striker Barry Hayles prevented a City collapse.

But sodden inch by sodden inch City scrambled back into contention. The midfield force of Steve Bushell, crisp of challenge, and Alan Pouton, swift and spinning out of tackles, began to give as good hey got in the duel with Rovers' player-manager Ian Holloway and fellow thirty-something Gary Penrice.

There remained scares in the visiting back-line, where City skipper Tony Barras only remotely rediscovered his customary coolness in the final 20 minutes, but the Minstermen always attacked with expectation of profit.

The first dividend was realised from Thompson's devilish corner. Rovers captain Andy Tillson almost headed into his own net, blushes spared by goalkeeper Andy Collett's reflexes. But Barry Jones swooped on the rebound for his second goal of his City career.Early in the second-half Rovers regained a foothold, Barras out-manoeuvred by Hayles for Tom Ramasut to nod a leveller.

But if anything City seized inspiration. They contrived their best spell of cohesion and passing, trusty footwork capped by Cresswell's exceptional winner for a great escapade.

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