21-05-2025
Callum Howe 'hurting' and 'gutted' after City fall short in the play-offs
CALLUM Howe admitted to being 'gutted' and 'hurting' after York City's Vanarama National League season ended on Tuesday evening.
York headed into the play-offs knowing that they needed two wins to confirm a return to the Football League, but fell short as Oldham Athletic eased to a 3-0 victory at a sold-out LNER Community Stadium.
The defeat means that City missed out on the chance to play at Wembley Stadium for the first time since 2017, and that they will remain a National League club for a fourth straight season.
The result will therefore hurt for quite some time for this York squad, and for Howe, having captained the club this season.
'We're just gutted. For the season to end like that, it's not good enough and we're all hurting,' Howe told BBC York.
'We didn't play to our capability on the night, for whatever reason that is, we're all in the changing room scratching our heads.
'I don't really know what to say right now, we're just gutted.
'We're gutted for ourselves, we're gutted for the club and we're gutted for the fans.
'The fans deserve a lot more than that after they've backed us all season, we're just sorry that we haven't turned up.'
Howe also admitted that the defeat will take a while to accept, with the City centre-back aware of his responsibilities as one of the more experienced heads in the group to support the younger players who may have not been through a similar predicament.
The captain also believed that the players had let themselves down in the match, but hopes that they can all take lessons from it to regroup for the 2025/26 season.
Howe added: 'It will take a while. I think it will take a while for this to fully sink in, I'm gutted for the group really.
'It's a great group of lads and we've had a good season overall, but we've let ourselves down.
'It's how we bounce back for next year.
'I've got to learn from my experiences and use it to help the younger lads.
'A few of them have probably not been through this situation before, I think it's important that we all stick together and regroup.
'We've got to look at that and learn from it ourselves, because we've got to do the same.
'We'll have a few weeks now to let the dust settle and regroup, we've got to come back into pre-season with a fresh mindset and be ready to go again.
'We know we're a good team, but we need to keep that consistency for the whole of next season.
'Fingers crossed we can be right up there again.'
Despite the hurt and frustration of how the York season came to an end on Tuesday evening, Howe doesn't want it to overshadow the incredible season which City have enjoyed.
Having amassed the second-highest points tally in history for the football club, reaching 96 points, and becoming a title contender just one year on from only celebrating survival on the final day, Howe was proud of how far the football club has come in such a short space of time.
'We've had a lot of clean sheets this year and were confident going into the game,' he confessed.
'Like I said, I've not really got the words right now to explain what has gone on but I suppose that's football.
'You've got to learn to bounce back from these things, I think that's it.
'From surviving last year to play how we have done for most of this season, to push Barnet at the top.
'We've come a long way, but unfortunately we've just not got over the line.'
