Away supporter attendances were first widely published around 2005. Andy Naylor has got them all logged. This page is based on his numbers.

Away Fans At Bootham Crescent – Recent Years

In each of our 4 seasons in the Football League (2012-6), the average number of away fans brought to Bootham Crescent was over 500, with 556 the highest average in 2015-16. The highest for one match was 2,028 brought by Bradford City in 2012-13.

In the non-league seasons, the highest average was 276 during the 2017-8 NLN season. The highest for an individual match being 1,094 by Halifax Town in 2005-06.

For clubs visiting York, the lowest away contingent in the Football League was 65 brought by Dagenham in 2015-16, and the lowest of all was the 11 from Forest Green in 2009-10. If league tables were based on support, York City (and Manchester United for that matter!) would be doing better than they currently are.

Away Fans At Bootham Crescent – The Record

Although it is a reasonable assumption that the 1938 FA Cup Round 6 game against Huddersfield, when a ground record 28,123 supporters packed into Bootham Crescent, had the most visiting fans inside Bootham Crescent, it is believed the record was set in 1975.

During our first season in Division 2 (1974/5), crowds of around 15,000 saw both the Sunderland and Manchester United games at Bootham Crescent. Given an average home gate of 8,828 that season, it suggests an away following of around 6,000 or more. A season later, with City struggling badly, on November 1st, 1975, 15,225 saw City lose to Sunderland. That season, home crowds sunk to an average 5,189 (Ed, Sunk? 5,189 - happy days), suggesting Sunderland had around 10,000 fans in the ground, other reports suggest as many as 12,000 with many Sunderland fans travelling to York days before the match just to buy tickets. Certainly, that crowd was over 10,000 up on the games immediately around it when opponents Charlton, Bristol City & Fulham brought relatively little support. In addition, those games were staged at the peak of the 1970s hooliganism, with Manchester United’s matches to the fore of it, personally I knew many City fans who refused to go to these games fearing trouble, so it is possible away support is under stated.

More recently, in April 1992 Burnley won 2-1 in front of a 7,620 crowd at Bootham Crescent to clinch the Division 4 championship with 4,849 Burnley fans inside the ground.

City Fans Away

For City fans travelling away, our highest average was 492 in the Worthington play-off season of 2013-14 (including the amazing 794 at Portsmouth), and the previous season the average had been 490 (with the lowest being an impressive 188 at Plymouth).

Last season (2017-8) we averaged only 471 away fans (the estimated 50 at Nuneaton didn't help). It is still a remarkable figure considering it was our lowest level ever of league football, though the regionalisation helps. That number was higher than the home average of North Ferriby United and 8 NLS teams.

The highest number of away fans City have taken as a Football League club, since records began, was 1,440 to Bradford City in 2012-13. As a non-league club we went higher, with 1,776 at Scarborough in 2005-06 (the home side made it 2-2 in the 95th minute!), and the highest of all was 2,000 taken to Harrogate last season.

There is still nothing quite like a cup run for attracting fans - those figures are still well short of the unbelievable City followings at Stoke (4,229 in 2010) and Bolton (4,838 in 2011, which was 37% of the total crowd).

Meanwhile, anecdotal evidence suggests that City took over 20,000 supporters to Hillsborough in 1955 for our FA Cup semi game with Newcastle and nearly as many a few days later to Roker Park for the replay.

Those numbers, easily top any other away City following, including all our Wembley games.

At the other extreme, in the 13 seasons of these records, City have rarely had below 100 fans at away games. As a Football League side the lowest was 108 at Plymouth in 2015-16, and in the last 6 seasons the only game definitely with fewer than 100 was 91 at Kidderminster last season (apart from the estimated figure of 50 at Nuneaton).

Footnote

Given the uncertainty over numbers caused by some smaller grounds not enforcing segregation and less than ideal turnstile operations (there have even been instances of “gate operators” pocketing the admission money of away City supporters), home and away supporter numbers are not always accurately recorded.

View all Andy's stats.