The York Community Stadium.

York City 2-1 Exeter City

29th August 2026

Season 2026/27 represents York City's first campaign back in the Football League since being relegated in 2016.  They had celebrated their return two weeks earlier with a 3-2 win over Bristol Rovers, which they had followed up with a merited draw at Rotherham.

This afternoon's visitors Exeter City, for their part, had a win and a loss to their name thus far.

Based upon their performance this afternoon, quite how Exeter had managed to defeat Accrington last week, I cannot imagine.  For the Devon club were utterly woeful here today.

For the first 80 or so minutes, York City dominated proceedings, and led 2-0 through Alex NEWBY (7 mins) and new lad Jovan MALCOLM's header (76 mins).  Newby really should have additionally had a couple more.

I could not recall a single opportunity of note for Exeter during this period.  And yet, the visitors could quite conceivably have stolen a point, as they had two great chances late on.  Jack FITZWATER scored his, in stoppage time, with a clever header.  This after, just a few minutes earlier, Lakyle Samuel's goal-bound shot had hit the heel of Newby, with the York forward not knowing a whole lot about it.

Sneaking a 2-2 draw here really would have been an act of scandalous larceny by The Grecians (as I believe Exeter City FC are known).

The York Community Stadium.

York City v Exeter City (August 2026)

In the corner of the North Stand closest to the away section, we had one of those Bravery Of Being Out-of-Range pea-brains who spent the whole match goading the visiting fans.  He took the crowd's response of "You're just a shit Peter Griffin" with good grace, but looked a bit tearful when informed "You're just a fat Harry Potter".   

Former York City player (and Scotland International) Greame Murty put in a half-time appearance, for a slightly awkward looking pitch-side interview.  But the PA system was so awful, certainly in our part of the ground, we could not make out a word he said.

The York Community Stadium.

The York Community Stadium, opened in 2017, sits in the middle of a retail/leisure park.  So, although there is no shortage of parking available, the site (rather oddly) makes you shell out of you want to stay for more than two hours. 

I would have thought it would have been in the interest of the various outlets to have football fans on-site (and spending) for as long as possible.

The stadium itself is a pretty non-descript Ikea flatpack job, with those horrible open corners I hate so much.  It only holds 8,500 fans - but, then again, if Bournemouth can thrive in the Premier League with a 12,300 capacity ground, anything is possible for York City I suppose.