It’s a boot-iful gain

Goal-getters from every team representing the club are currently contesting the prize with the youngest schoolboy side through to the senior squad and City's ladies all eligible.

Andrew, 48, came up with the idea after watching last season's end-of-season presentations and it is planned that the Boot will now be awarded to the Minstermen's top scorer at the end of every campaign.

He said: "I've been toying with the idea for a while because, at the end of the season, there's plenty of Player of the Year awards but never one for the leading scorer. I contacted the club and Sophie McGill agreed it was a good suggestion so we have come up with the Keith Walwyn Memorial Boot."

Andrew felt it fitting that the late, great Walwyn's name should be commemorated by the award, believing the West Indian-born striker to be the finest marksman during the 45 years he has been following the club.

He said: "Paul Aimson was a great goalscorer but Keith's attitude and willingness to work set him apart. He was just a complete, all-round, excellent footballer.

"That's not to say other forwards haven't been - he just had that extra something a bit like Clayton Donaldson at the moment. That's been lacking in the team over recent years."

Andrew also wanted the Boot to apply to all age groups and teams operating from KitKat Crescent, reasoning that the youth system provides the lifeblood for a club of City's stature.

He said: "Without the youth set-up we would have probably gone bust years ago but the likes of Jonathan Greening and Richard Cresswell have both come through and made it big time. I wanted the Boot to go through the whole club so it gives everybody the incentive to do something.

"If it is an under-eight or under-nine player then their favourite first-team player can make the presentation. If it was somebody from the first team then hopefully a goalscorer from the past like Chris Jones, Jimmy Seal or Paul Barnes could do the honours."

Perhaps surprisingly, Andrew, himself, was dedicated to keeping strikers off the scoresheet as a goalkeeper for LNE Builders and British Telecom and even had a trial with City only to be told he was too small for a career between the sticks by then manager Tom Johnston.

Instead, he has committed himself to a life cheering on the Minstermen home and away, fitting his support for the club around his work patterns for the parking section at the City of York Council.

He watches KitKat Crescent matches with his daughter Sara and his grand-daughter Ella-Kay was registered as the youngest-ever Junior Red member last summer when a proud Andrew raced from the hospital to enrol the five-hour-old baby girl although she is yet to attend her first match.

Andrew, who watched his first game at the age of four in 1962, is certain that current boss Billy McEwan is laying foundations that will mean the family's three generations can enjoy many a Saturday afternoon together in the future.

He said: "I am very impressed with the current team and that's down to Billy without a shadow of doubt. He's the one that's got them going and I like his no-nonsense Brian Clough approach.

"We have had one or two managers in the past who might not have been as disciplined or as well-educated and I'm sure he will take us back into the Football League."

A trip down memory Rhodes

Former Football League referee Peter Rhodes, who still lives in Woodthorpe, contacted the sports desk this week to offer his thoughts on David Beckham's imminent move to Los Angeles, having officiated in the States himself back in 1968.

His memories were included in Thursday's paper but Peter also regaled me with some interesting tales from his past.

The former grocer used to act as a chauffer for Tom Lockie, transporting the City manager to a variety of North Yorkshire service stations where important transfer deals were often sealed.

He also twice failed to earn himself a place on the Bootham Crescent board, leading an unsuccessful takeover bid on his return from America in 1968 and then having an offer to become a club director withdrawn ten years later because of his reputation for ruffling feathers.

Peter, now 85, later joined York rugby league club's board in 1980 but became disillusioned after spending two years exposing corruption at the club.

About his City experiences, retired grocer Peter said: "Michael Sinclair asked me to go on the board if I could find £5,000. I could and, as chairman of the York FA and the York Sunday League with a reasonably successful business career, I would have been the ideal man with a knowledge of both amateur and professional football but the other directors went through the boardroom ceiling when my name was mentioned so that was the end of that."

Peter was also unfairly labelled the country's most controversial referee by the national press and, at the height of his fame, won a libel case against the Daily Express.

The settlement was very sizeable for a referee whose first fee was one and sixpence for taking charge of a Dringhouses v New Earswick 14-16 Minor League match on Knavesmire.

Peter went on to achieve notoriety as a hard-lined official who sent off Scottish heroes Denis Law and Ian St John.

About his infamous red cards, it soon becomes apparent he had little choice.

Recalling the incidents, he said: "I knew Denis Law well from when he had played for Huddersfield Town's A'-team but he tapped Alan Ball's ankles in a game and, when I told him I wanted that to be the last time, he told me to **** off' so I sent him off.

"I used to regularly referee Manchester United but never got them again after that.

"With Ian St John, he was racing for a ball and Preston's Ian Singleton could not quite catch him and, instead, used his hand like a club and hit him on the back of his head.

"I thought he had broken all his fingers doing it because he was bent double clutching his hand but then St John kicked him right up his rectum so I had to send them both off.

"The local Liverpool reporter at the time said the way I handled the situation should be used in a training manual which is one of the nicest things that was ever written about me."

He still watches local football, attending Dringhouses matches every Saturday occasionally with ex-City striker Alf Patrick.

Peter is impressed with the standard and is all in favour of at least one advancement in the game.

He enthused: "The balls are lighter and that's better because if you headed a ball in the 1930s you ended up a zombie in later life."

Tee-rific

Ex-City winger John Linaker marked his 80th birthday with a surprise dinner party at Fulford Golf Club this week. Linaker was a scratch golfer for 20 years, winning the York Open in 1970 and he still plays four times a week. The ex-Everton amateur played on the right wing for City in two spells 1950-51 and 1953-55, making 98 appearances and scoring 20 goals.