Olly Dyson: York City midfielder reflects on promotion-winning season

“There was no option of losing.”

So said Olly Dyson, two years on from York City’s incredible 2022 Vanarama National League North play-off final victory to secure promotion.

Goals from Lenell John-Lewis and Maziar Kouhyar secured York’s position back in the Vanarama National League after a five-year period away, after besting Boston United at the LNER Community Stadium.

Dyson played a key role in City’s promotion to the fifth tier and would later go on to earn the Billy Fenton Clubman of the Year accolade for the following season, with the midfielder reflecting proudly on a remarkable campaign that will live long in the memories of York supporters.

“Now that the dust has settled and it has been a while, and I reflect on it, it was some achievement really,” Dyson told the Press.

“The position that we were in, especially after Christmas, to then turn it around like we did and to finish fifth in the play-offs.

“We played every game away in the semis and to then be at home against Boston, I don’t think anyone would have predicted it.

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“Everything sort of turned in our favour and I remember walking out on the pitch, and we were just thinking that we were going to win, there was no option of losing.

“I don’t think anyone felt that we were going to lose that day, and I think that it showed in our performance.”

Dyson felt that the impact of the City supporters aided the players in getting over the line, labelling the fans as the “12th man” after a record-breaking crowd, at the time, packed into the LNER Community Stadium.

Dyson enthused: “Especially within the fans, the way that the atmosphere was going was just unbelievable and it was quality from the start to the end.

“I loved every minute of it, and reflecting back on it now, it was an amazing time.

“We had Chorley at home and then had been to Brackley away, and it was tough.

“It was a tough game but we still brought an amazing set of fans, so to have the final at home with seven-and-a-half [thousand] and we had to let go of a thousand because of the seats.

“They were still amazing with the seven-and-a-half thousand that were there, it was rocking, you couldn’t hear yourself think and it was amazing.”

“That’s what you want, especially in a final. I think that it intimidated Boston a little bit as well with the crowd, they were the 12th man on that day as well.

“Because of the situation we found ourselves in at Christmas to the situation we got in, we had done so well.

“We’d won loads of games, we won the two games in the quarters and the semis and that was the only thing we could think about – winning.

“We were the in-form team in the play-offs and it 100 per cent showed, we got into the final and no one spoke about how tough it was going to be.

“Obviously we knew that it was going to be tough, but we just focused on ourselves, we played the right thing and played the right game, got the fans on top of us and it would have been okay.”

Dyson also paid homage to captain John-Lewis for his contributions to the play-off victory, who bagged an early goal to help City set the precedence for the remainder of the contest.

The York midfielder felt that it helped settle the nerves throughout the fans and the squad: “We scored early which helped because it got the fans going crazy, everything just worked out to a tee.

“It just settled the nerves, from both sides with the crowd and with us.

“Anything can happen, especially in a final, so the early goal from Lenny, of course, he scored in every game.

“It just gave us that confidence, it made us believe even more and we believed that it was our day.

“We knew it anyway, but the early goal helped and we stuck to our game plan before Maz scored the late second goal.

“That was a relief then when Maz scored at the end, it was good for us.”

Promotion-winning boss John Askey also arrived into North Yorkshire in November, and would transform the squad into winners after embarking on a run of just one defeat in 11 matches to end the campaign.

Dyson explained where such a run came from after reflecting on the key turning points throughout the season, going on to discuss how Askey was able to turn the Minstermen’s fortunes around.

Dyson told the Press: “The old gaffer came in and I think he gave us a stature about us, with how we were playing.

“We were good defensively and had a lot of clean sheets, we brought Maz in and brought a few players in and added a bit of firepower to us.

“It could go either way, we could lose a game but because we nicked a win, and then nicked another win, the confidence just slowly grew.

“One loss in 11 games went into the play-offs and we just carried it on, form is so important going into the play-offs and we were the in-form team.

“To have that run, we couldn’t ask for any better.

“There were some low points, I remember losing to Bradford [Park Avenue] at home 3-0 and thinking ‘jesus, what’s going on?’.

“I’d say that looking back now, in the play-offs and beating Brackley, because Brackley came second and they were flying, to go and beat them, after that I thought that it was our time now.

“In terms of the league, we beat Fylde away and Fylde were doing well, we were obviously winning a few more games and trying to get up the league a bit, but that was a massive game.

“I think that if we lost that, Fylde would have gone above us because they were sniffing around the play-offs and did get in the play-offs.

“Because we beat them we got the three points on them, went on to get three points against a few other teams and that really gave us the big push.

“We had four games left and we knew that this could be our chance to really push on now, and we did. I’d probably say that Fylde away was the turning point.”