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| The teams shake hands in Newport's picturesque ground. |
... So I went elsewhere. A 704 mile round trip to Workington for the second year running wasn't very attractive, despite the Pilgrims having beaten Workington eight time in a row. It just so happened that the other team from Boston were playing 10 miles from my house, at Newport Pagnell Town. With all the ex-Pilgrims in the line-up it'd be almost like watching United, almost.
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| Cricket: in case the game is rubbish. |
Newport's Willen Road ground is a multi-purpose sports site and the cricket going on adjacent to the pitch would provide some entertainment in the unlikely situation that the football proved to be overly dull. The club house was pleasant enough, a cosy bar area with Sky alongside a neat function room providing more than enough room to spread out. The beer was reasonably priced but the food consisted of scant offerings, filled baps and peanuts being the only available sustenance. Moving into the ground itself I ended up chatting to another "sort-of-Town-fan", he was a Northampton fan but follows the Poachers when Northampton are away, he pointed out the other ten or so Town fans in the "crowd" of around 100.
Newport Pagnell scored over 100 goals last season in the process of finishing third in the league behind big spending St Neots and King's Lynn and they were soon pressuring the Poachers. For the first 15 minutes of the game Pagnell's physically bigger players, particularly their number eight, were the target as balls were thrown into the box. The Poachers were lucky to escape as a belting shot came in from a completely unmarked Pagnell player on the edge of the box. Boston dealt with the threat well though and with Michael Wood playing a key role in defence they slowly began to limit the Pagnell chances. However, Pagnell were still in control of the game and threatened despite the lack of clear chances. This all changed 34 minutes in when ex-Pilgrim Danny Matson pounced on a loose ball 20 yards out and scuffed a low shot home against the run of play. Buoyed by the goal the Poachers started to play some nice stuff and were well on top of the game as the half-time whistle went.
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| Newport's giants pile on the pressure. |
Newport came flying at Town in the second half, literally. A strong side, Newport weren't afraid of the tackle and the Poachers players started to take a battering as they looked to play it around their bigger opponents. Hard tackling drew the yellow card out of the ref's pocket on more than one occasion and there were times when the guilty party were lucky that the card wasn't red. Boston, looking to rise above this, went 2-0 up on 65 minutes. Another ex-Pilgrim, Shane Clancy, ran at the lumbering Pagnell back-line before letting fly with an effort which deflected and nestled neatly into the bottom corner.
A Boston cross-come-shot from a very narrow angle thudded against the inside of the Pagnell post and flew back out as the Poachers searched to finish the home team off. Pagnell responded well in the middle of the park but were unable to fashion any clear chances up front. Frustration got the better of one or two of the Newport players, the right back in particular was lucky to remain on the pitch. The ball having gone out of play for a throw in was claimed by Matson and the Pagnell right-back, the right-back got there first and threw the ball into Matson's face. The ref clearly having missed all this dismissed the frantically flagging linesman's protestations before nonchalantly wandering over and proceeding to book both players. The referee did eventually consult the linesman but "didn't really understand what [he] was saying". Oh, good.
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| Matson does the honours from the spot. |
Justice was done minutes later when a rash challenge in the Pagnell box drew a farcical dive from one of the Boston players. It was good enough to fool the referee and a penalty was given. Matson stepped up and duly converted to cap a good performance from the Lincolnshire team. Turns out that United had a similarly good day up in "Mordor", a Holsgrove winner coming in the 94th minute to give the Pilgrims three points on the first day.
