Well It Had To End Sometime

A short post this week to round up a couple of poor showings from the Boston.

Boston United's winning run has come to a crashing halt.  You may remember I predicted Whitby Town away was going to be a tough game.  It turned out to be slightly more than that.  The Pilgrims were, by all accounts, toothless in attack.  Whitby took advantage of this, running out 2-0 winners after a wonder goal and a cheaply conceded penalty.  The night was made worse by results elsewhere.  Bradford and North Ferriby each picked up three points with Guiseley winning against Stocksbridge Park Steels the night before.  The only positive was that both Retford and Kendal failed to get anything out of their games against Buxton and Marine respectively.

Boston looked to bounce back from this disastrous midweek with an away tie at North Ferriby.  Around 250-300 Pilgrims travelled only to witness a poor game in which neither side threatened.  I was planning to write a match report on this game but, in all honesty, absolutely nothing of any note happened.  Special mention to the Ferriby fans who were great and who gave us a good bit of banter.

On reflection a point against a strong North Ferriby side is a good result, especially considering they have beaten Bradford twice this season. The real downer is the manner in which this result occurred.  There was very little attacking prowess, and while the defence stood strong we never even looked like scoring.  In my opinion the managers left it too late to change things and dropping the clubs top scorer (Marc 'Jesus' Newsham) to the bench before the game was never a smart move.

Once again the only saving grace for this day came in the form of results elsewhere with Retford and Bradford both losing.  Guiseley had the best weekend, with a win and all their rivals failing to keep up the pressure.

These are the sort of games the Pilgrims have to win to top the league.  It was vital to take advantage of any slip ups made by the teams in the top five and that hasn't happened.  Now there is a reliance on other results for there to be any hope of winning the league.

Getting In Touch With England's Feminine Side

Thursday saw England take on Austria at Loftus Road in the first of a double header of Women's World Cup 2011 Qualifiers, with a game against a strong Spain side a week away.  For those of you unfamiliar with the fastest growing women's sport in this country, next summer sees Germany host the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup tournament.  After an impressive run in the UEFA Women's Euro' 2009 competition, England reached the final before being outclassed by a all conquering German team, England will be hoping to be there.  Despite this success qualification for the World Cup is hardly assured...

Loftus Road, home of QPR and, for tonight, England Women.

The UEFA section qualification process for the Women's World Cup is a bit convoluted but I will endeavour to make it as clear as possible.  41 European teams are drawn into eight groups.  The eight group winners are drawn into play-offs with the four winning teams joining Germany at the tournament finals.  The four losing teams play-off against each other until there is one team remaining.  The remaining team is then entered into a play-off against the team placed third from the CONCACAF section with the winner going to the World Cup.  Simple, right?

England, the favourites being the highest FIFA ranked team (8th) in the group, share group five with a free scoring Spain side who have scored 21 goals in their first four games without conceding once.  England have also started strongly, beating group whipping girls Malta 8-0 and Turkey 3-0 before Thursday's game.  Their opponents at Loftus Road have narrowly lost to Spain twice and have picked up three points by defeating Malta.  Realistically England must come out on top in their head-to-head clashes with Spain and win the rest of their games, starting with Austria to ensure qualification.

Two sides of Loftus Road are open for the game and just under 4,000 people have braved the light drizzle to be there.  My £5 has bought me a seat on the upper tier of the South Africa Road stand, in the platinum season ticket area no less.  Just 20 yards away, in front of the press box, Sir Trevor Brooking takes his seat.  Plenty of families have turned up and as the teams line up and the national anthems sound out the atmosphere starts to build.  Six enforced changes have been made to the England team that beat Turkey in the last outing but the squad has the depth to have this many girls out and still bring in some talented players.

The anthems are played as kick off nears.

Kick-off arrives quickly and England start well.  England's right flank is particularly strong with Dunia Susi and Alex Scott combining well to create several chances.  The Austrian keeper, Jasmin Pfeiler, has a poor start to the game and has to rely on a combination of good luck and help from her defenders to get her out of a few sticky situations.  The England front-line continue to look threatening and as the half wears on it seems that a goal is inevitable.  Lianne Sanderson duly provides with a deflected looping header on 16 minutes after some fantastic work by Eni Aluko to get a cross in.  This is the highlight of the first half for England and after scoring the performance starts to slip.  England give away numerous free kicks and Austria, looking good on set pieces, threaten to take advantage.  England are probably happier to hear the half-time whistle than Austria.

The second half begins where the first left off.  England have good chances but some excellent goal keeping from a much improved Pfeiler keep them out.  Austria look threatening with the Austrian captain Nina Aigner starting to run the midfield.  Most of the problems were of England's own making though, as the defenders struggle to clear their lines and begin to drop deeper.  The home side were kicked back into life after a scare as a Daniella Tasch shot rattled the crossbar.

The second half gets going.

England's right came to life once more, and after a good spell of pressure Alex Scott somehow contrived to miss an absolute sitter from two yards.  Striker Ellen White was handed her début as Hope Powell reshuffled, boldly replacing right back Susi.  Several chances followed before Sanderson returned the earlier favour and crossed for Aluko to volley home a well struck effort.  That goal effectively ended the match as a competition

It could have been three when Fara Williams, now bossing the midfield with a great array of pinpoint passing, drove an effort against the crossbar from 25 yards.  Powell handed the second début of the night to Claire Rafferty and with three minutes left on the clock and the game appeared to be over.  However some impressive play from Sanderson, who had shown quality touches all night, put Ellen White through to deftly lob Pfeiler in a beautiful finish to her first full international appearance.

This women's international provided great entertainment, especially for a £5 entrance fee!  Women's football is slower paced than the men's game but there is no lack of skill or physical challenges.  The match officials would be welcomed in any game as they did not put a foot wrong all night.  The next clash against Spain will be a much tougher challenge for the lasses but this win is an important step towards qualification leaving England three points behind Spain with a game in hand.

If you are about in the London area on Thursday (1st April) then get some tickets from the Millwall website and come along to the New Den.  If you can't get there but are stuck for something to do you can watch the match live on the FA website.

Only Two Weeks? Are You Sure?!

For various reasons it's been almost two weeks since my last blog update, but what a two weeks!  The Pilgrims have played four, won four and are in the most successful run of form since the sixties.  These four victories have seen United slot home ten goals with only one conceded, defeat promotion rivals, reach the final of one competition and win another. Hectic is not the word!  After a bit of time to reflect I think now is a good time to sum up these events...

Retford Away

The topic of the last post was the away trip to Durham City AFC.  The Durham game on the Saturday was followed by a trip to fellow promotion chasers Retford United FC on a Tuesday night.  There are several ties between the clubs with ex-Boston players Peter Duffield (now Retford's manager), Lee Thompson and Paul Ellender all being involved in the Retford set-up.  The sides previous meeting at York St in September was, by all accounts, a fractious affair which resulted in a 1-0 defeat for the Boston and a touchline brawl.  With this in mind the trip to Cannon Park was looking a bit tasty to say the least.

The BUSA bus left Boston with around twenty five hardy supporters, as most had made other travel arrangements.  We made it almost all the way to Sleaford before technical issues with the lights slowed progress.  A replacement coach was sorted and with the remainder of the journey largely uneventful we arrived at Retford's ground.  Apparently bewildered by the large following from Lincolnshire and with a lengthy queue already forming at the turnstile, the stewards struggled to find room to park the bus in an already brimmed car park.  Upon entering the ground it became apparent just how many Boston had travelled.  In fact there was such a following that Retford's league attendance record was broken as 664 people poured into the ground through the one block of turnstiles.  The programmes sold out shortly after our arrival and the grease-packed offerings of the snack bar were depleted by half-time.  It was beginning to feel like one of those nights.

The teams shake hands.

As the match got under-way a 'physical' Retford side started well penning Boston back.  Boston started to come into the game and after several headed opportunities for Pearson the break-through came.  A nice move culminated with Weir-Daley putting in a cross for Sleath to nod home.  This lead was quickly cancelled out courtesy of a cracking Bettney free kick leaving the teams level at half time.

Cannon Park under floodlight with some of the travelling fans behind the goal.

A few minutes into the second half Boston's lead was restored. A deserved header from Pearson given, despite the claims for a foul on the keeper.  A nervous 30 mins followed but the Pilgrims managed to hold on.  At the final whistle all hell broke loose with people on the pitch, benches clashing and punches being thrown as the stewards and officials struggled to regain control.  All in all an ugly end to a fantastic night which went a long way to proving Boston's promotion credentials against one of the better teams in the league.

Curzon Ashton Away

Kick off time approaches at the Tameside Stadium.

This trip in the Unibond League Challenge Cup provided a first visit to the Tameside Stadium for Boston supporters.  The Tameside made a pleasant contrast with Cannon park.  The ground was tidy, with a good set of stands on either side and a very nice sports bar.  The atmosphere during the game was that of a pre-season friendly with the Pilgrim supporters more interested in events down the road at Gigg Lane where Durham City were picking up their first points of the season by beating FC United of Manchester.  Talking to some Curzon fans at the Ashton game earlier in the season I was assured that they would 'play us off the park'.  They didn't.  In fairness the football on display from both teams wasn't the best and two second half finishes from Sleath and Weir-Daley gave Boston the victory and a place in the final.  The ground tick was probably the highlight of the day.

Grantham Town Away

Lee Canoville looks a little embarrassed lifting the Lincs. Senior Shield (photo courtesy of Scott Dalton, who's excellent coverage of Boston United can be followed on Twitter).

Grantham Town hosted Boston in this year's Lincolnshire Senior Shield final.  The quality of this competition can be summed up by highlighting the fact that the shield is made of wood.  Again the quality of football on show was poor.  This time there wasn't even a nice ground, or enough programmes, to rescue the situation for the 378 fans in attendance.  The running track around the pitch contrived to kill off any atmosphere and put the crowd so far from the action as to dampen any excitement that might have arisen had it been a better game.  A professional performance from the Pilgrims was capped by a second half winner from the head of Shaun Pearson.  A huge downside to the night was an injury suffered by Adam Millson who fractured his leg, again.  It wasn't the best to watch but at the end of the day silver wood-ware is wood-ware.  One positive, the chips and curry sauce in the club house was well worth the £1.50 (ish) and come highly recommended.

Nantwich Town at York St

Saturday rolls round and it's finally time for a home match as Nantwich and their eleven fans are the visitors to York St.  It seems like it's been a long time coming with so many away games this month.  The Boston boys have some unfinished business with Nantwich.  5-0 drubbings home and away, along with a broken leg for Adam Millson last season, have left a sour taste in the mouth.  Boston went some way to putting this right late last year, hammering Nantwich 4-0 at the Weaver Stadium in October.

Boston started slow and were lucky not to be behind, a brilliant goal line clearance by Shaun Pearson rescuing the situation.  Boston kicked on from there and it took 17 minutes for Marc 'tap-in' Newsham (a.k.a. Jesus) to put the Pilgrims ahead from what looked to be a massively offside position.  This wasn't the only bit of help Boston got from the Referee who seemed to be biased in our favour for once (not that I'm complaining).  Boston came out for the second half 1-0 up but were nearly punished for being half-asleep when a free header was missed by Michael Lennon.  Again the Pilgrims were spurred on by this near miss and it wasn't long before Davidson put us ahead.  Boston never looked back from here and further goals followed from Weir-Daley, Sleath and Suarez.  Whilst not the best team to visit York St this season, Nantwich certainly weren't the worst.  This is a big win for Boston on a day when table toppers Bradford Park Avenue had a game called off and promotion hopefuls Retford and Guiseley could only draw.

In my opinion the difference between this performance and the preceding abject cup performances can be summed up in two words... Anthony Church.  This guy can run the midfield with his eyes shut and seems to be able to get the best from Danny Sleath as well.  Class player, I just hope we can keep him fit and playing.


As I said at the start, all that in two weeks, are you sure?  Looking ahead the Boston have what could be a really tough away game at Whitby Town this Wednesday.  Whitby's form has been pretty good recently with wins coming against Retford and North Ferriby, a defeat to Durham last week was the only real hiccup in their recent run.  The month is rounded off with a trip to play-off hopefuls North Ferriby making it one home game and six away games in March.  The Unibond sure know how to pack the games in.

Durham City AFC vs Boston United

This weekend the Boston Boys undertook the six billion mile (at least it felt that way) round trip to play Durham City. Many thanks to Ken Fox for providing the pictures.

The Durham lads pre-kick off.

Durham City left Ferens park, their home for the 43 years after their reformation, in the '93-'94 season.  They ground shared with Chester-le-Street Town for a year before moving into their current ground, the Arnott Stadium.  Successive promotions in the '07-'08 and '08-'09 seasons found them in the Northern Premier League's top flight.  An ambitious, well backed club, Durham were eyeing a third promotion in three years.

The club's aspirations were dealt a hammer blow as the season started with the news that, due to their all weather pitch, the football conference would not admit the club, regardless of where they finished the season.  This news resulted in Durham's backers pulling out and left the North Eastern club battling for financial survival at the expense of their league season.  The cost of this has been heavy.  Players left and the team was filled with youngsters.  At the time of writing Durham have played 28 and lost all of them, conceding 137 goals in the process.  Durham were also handed a 6 point penalty and had their manager suspended for fielding a player under a false name and relegation is certain.  Despite all this the club has survived and that, it must be remembered, is the important thing.

This wasn't the first time Boston United had visited the Arnott Stadium during the course of the season and that seems as good a place to start as any...

On the 3rd of October 2009 Boston made their first attempt at playing Durham.  Around 100 people made the journey to the North East.  As the final few supporters were rolling into the club bar the game was cancelled due to strong winds.  Accusations and counter accusations flew about who was responsible for the game being called off.  Understandably the Boston fans were a bit miffed about a weather related postponement on the much maligned 'all weather pitch', especially considering the time, cost and effort of making the trip in the first place.  Ultimately the afternoon was spent in one of the most expensive Lloyd's bars that I have ever had the misfortune of entering, before a lengthy trip home.

Since then Durham have been on the end of a 10-0 thrashing at York St.  Their players came out of that day with a great deal of respect from the Boston supporters.  Not once did a head drop and their keeper was arguably the man of the match.  There was a well deserved post-game standing ovation for the lads in the Pilgrim Lounge.  This went some way to allaying the trepidation and bad feeling following the October debacle and so it was that, bleary eyed on a Saturday morning, around 150 of us made our way North.

Several hours, and a large proportion of the A1 later we arrived at Durham.  The greeting we got was nothing less than marvellous.  The Durham fans seemed genuinely pleased to see us (a novel experience for Boston).  There was a great atmosphere in the bar as the fans mingled.  On a personal note it was great to meet Danny, who I speak to occasionally on Twitter, and his mate Mark.  These two lads embodied the spirit of non-league football, enjoying their time in the NPL regardless of the circumstances.

Kick off came around quickly and Boston got off to a sluggish start.  Durham penned us back for quite a while.  It took 19mins for the break through to be made, Church providing a throughball for Weir-Daley to convert.  Durham then piled on the pressure with several chances before equalising in the 35th minute through a stunning 30 yard drive from Winter, cue mad celebrations from Danny, Mark and the rest of the Durham lot.  It looked like things would be all square at half time until Weir-Daley converted a useful Ryan Semple cross deep in added time.

Durham celebrate the equaliser.

Spencer Weir-Daley scores his second.

The second half kicked off with the Pilgrims supporters hoping for a little more out of their team.  This was provided with two goals in ten minutes.  Semple scoring on his debut followed by Weir-Daley completing his hat-trick.  At 4-1 up there was only one team in it, Boston kept pressuring for more goals but were denied by some resolute defending and some shoddy finishing.

Spencer Weir-Daley and Danny Sleath get the second half underway.

Ryan Semple running the wing.

It was a good result overall with Durham making vast improvements at home over the last few months.  With the top two teams drawing and North Ferriby slipping to defeat at the hands of Kendal it was important for Boston to get the three points, even if it wasn't the best performance of the year.  Credit to Durham (definitely not the worst team I've seen this year) who's players, supporters, stewards, officials and chairman's daughter (DAMN!!!) epitomise everything that is good about the non-league game.  Can we play you every week!?