Disastrous, disorganised, haphazard, hopeless. These are just a handful of adjectives that sum up York City’s season.
With just five games remaining, the Minstermen find themselves languishing in the relegation zone, nine points away from safety.
For a club that has won just six times in 41 attempts, it seems improbable that they will string a further three together (at the very least), to save their Football League status. But what is football without hope?
The new footballing phenomenon, Leicester City, have breathed life into the game, and led all clubs outside the elite to dream that anything is possible.
Granted, City’s circumstances are contrasting to say the least, but survival this year would be similarly movie-worthy.
York travel to Hartlepool this weekend knowing that they need a result. In truth, they have needed a result every weekend for the last two months, the last win being against Exeter City on February 16.
But there seems an almost romantic need to amend the record this Saturday as Hartlepool reappear on the fixture list.
Back in August, York welcomed the Monkey Hangers for their first home fixture of the campaign. From what had been discussed during pre-season, they were expected to be a team in the lower echelons of the league come May.
To their immense credit, Pools started well. After the great escape of the season before, they won their opening three fixtures, something that would take York until mid-December.
A miserable run under Ronnie Moore saw them drop to 22nd by February, but having steadied the ship under new boss Craig Hignett, they sit comfortably in 16th, knowing their only participation in this year’s relegation circus will be their performance against York.
Pools ran out 2-1 winners at Bootham Crescent that day back in August, and for many, it was a sign of things to come. It was City’s first test against a similar team on paper, and they blew it.
I was there that day and it cemented a pattern we have seen repeated almost fortnightly since. York went a goal up around the hour mark, before capitulating and crashing to late goals and defeat.
Late goals and lax defending cost City two invaluable points just last week against Orient, and the week before when hosting Crawley. They simply do not seem to learn.
This weekend is a final throw of the dice. The discontent on the terraces was evident at the weekend, and I would regrettably agree with the majority that any change in fortune may be too little too late.
But the fixture with Hartlepool is about so much more. It is a chance to prove that something has changed since that defeat in August, that we should not expect similar disappointment when starting out next season, wherever that may be.
After that defeat eight months ago, the attendance at Bootham Crescent fell by almost 2,000 for the next home game against Yeovil. Considering the original attendance was just 4,890 that is an alarming statistic.
Whether those who failed to return were fair-weather fans or simply savvy enough to realise this team was not worth the £18 ticket price is your decision to make. But losing to Hartlepool United set the tone.
This weekend, York have the opportunity to set a different tone. A chance to show some of that fight come the end of the season that was inherently lacking at the start.
Whether it be a defiant farewell to a league we have not felt comfortable in, or another inexplicable story from a season which has had everything, we shall see.
But Hartlepool is local enough to matter, and the fans deserve proof that York have a future. Not only those travelling, but the circa 2,800 that have devotedly sat through the gritty and grim at home week after week.
I am not begging York City to survive. You don’t need to be an economist or a football coach to see the Football League is above their current squad level.
All I ask is improvement. A different sensation from that I felt in August, so I can enter that post-match press room with a sense of acceptance and pride, as opposed to that all too familiar, awkward grimace.
Alastair Ross - Grim up North 