Buck’s Head Skrill North Saturday December 28th 2013
Marc Newsham celebrates his 100th goal for the Pilgrims
Pre Game
For the visit to Telford, i had convinced my Uni housemate, Ian, to come along and rather than take the cheaper, quicker supporters bus to the game, i would get the 8:50 train from Boston to Nottingham, then get the train to Tamworth and be picked up by Ian (who lives near Walsall) at 11:35 and from there, we would go by road to Telford, 40 miles away and find somewhere to eat/drink/watch footy.
So I got up early and watched yet another England batting disaster to go from a great position to one of real vulnerability. Then I was out of the door by 8:15. A walk on icy streets via ASDA to get a paper and I made the ticket office with a few minutes to spare.
Boston station at 8:40am- note the scars from the Beeching cuts
There, I aimed to buy two day return tickets- Boston to Nottingham & Nottingham to Tamworth, which would be £10 each with a railcard. Sadly the bloke did open returns, so it was £15 and £10… so £5 I didn’t want to spend there. I bumped into some family friends on their way to shopping in Nottingham so at least I had company for the horrendous 90 minute journey on arguably Britain’s worst stretch of railway.
So having got to Nottingham safely, I boarded the 10:40 to Birmingham and was just getting cozy when I saw a face I recognised out of the window. It was fellow Pilgrims fan Adam Hallgarth. So I decided to hop into his carriage to see him and we got talking about a variety of things on the 55 minute journey to Tamworth, where I disembarked. He had come on the same train as me (unnoticed at the time) and was going to Wellington (due in at 1pm).
Once there, I met up with Ian and we got in his car and began the drive to Telford (or Wellington to be precise) and after an hour, we were upon our destination. After a brief battle trying to find somewhere to park for free, we found the Swan Hotel- around 200m from the ground and decided to go in there for a bite to eat, a drink and to see Ian’s beloved West Ham take on West Brom.
No sooner had we got in, West Ham went 1 up. A pint of Stella and a local ale cost £6.20 and we got 2 fish and chips meals for a tenner, which was really good value and very good standard.
The Swan Hotel. I would recommend this to any fan going to Telford
So from there it was all about waiting for fellow BUFC fans on the bus to arrive and watching what turned out to be an entertaining 3-3-draw (good for my bet as I put a draw). The bus got slightly delayed and only arrived at 2:15, so after a quick pint, we made our way to the ground at 2:40pm.
The Buck’s Head is a very tidy ground. It has 2 identical terraces at either end. We were given one of those. There is a sizeable main stand to our left with corporate facilities and then a small open terrace on our right which is a shame as it does take a bit of the shine off a ground which would be ideal for us (possibly also a bigger home end). 80 Pilgrims eventually made the trip in a crowd of 1,659
The Game
Dennis Greene stuck to his plans and rotated the side somewhat- Indy Aujla coming in for Ian Ross, Jake Hall in for Conor Marshall and Stefan Galinski in for Netan Sansara.
Telford are a strong side but in a half of very few clear cut chances, Boston’s defence coped extremely well with the constant aerial bombardment, although we didn’t really have too much going forwards early on. Telford had a good chance denied as Mike Grogan headed goalbound against his own man, Sean Clancy.
But after around half an hour, Boston almost managed to set Marc Newsham and the lively Ben Fairclough in and this paid off as 41 minutes in, Liam Marrs slid a ball through and Newsham raced clear to slot past Ryan Young to notch his 100th Boston United goal. We almost did exactly the same thing 2 minutes later through Hall, but for a recovering Neill Byrne managed to get the effort clear.
Dennis Greene was left in the unusual position of having to give a half time team-talk when we were leading (only the 3rd time all season) and it didn’t work. Just 40 seconds into the 2nd half, Telford got a man over on the right hand side and Tony Gray beat the United challenges and slammed home the equalizer.
But we had a golden chance to respond immediately. Marrs put in a smashing ball from the right and Ben Milnes stooped to head from 6 yards out with the goal gaping… but managed to head over the top!
But on 68 minutes came the big controversy. Carl Piergianni was bundled to the ground, but the ref, who gave us absolutely nothing until the 93rd minute, waved play on and Robbie Booth ran in and netted the 2nd for the hosts. This incensed the Boston team, manager and fans as chants of “It’s just like playing 12 men” and “2-1 to the referee” rang round Buck’s Head.
Boston struggled to get back on track and Telford had a couple of moments to get a 3rd but began launching sustained pressure in the last 10 minutes. Galinski headed over from a corner when it seemed harder to miss, Newsham’s back post header went just wide and at the other end, King denied Booth’s drive, but came the big moment in the 93rd minute.
After some head tennis, the ball broke to Fairclough, 8 yards out. As he pulled the trigger, he was felled, though I actually think the Telford man may have got a bit of the ball, but the ref had given us sod all for 93 minutes, now we had a golden chance to nick a well deserved point.
Marc Newsham stepped up… and delivered the inopportune time to strike his worst penalty in Boston colours. His tame effort easily held by Young. Follow the link below to see how badly struck the penalty was.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2FW1tTPO9w
The 3 points were Telfords… I’m not really sure how!
Winless in December, yet still only 3 points off the playoffs- this league is getting crazy!
AFC Telford (4-4-2): Ryan Young; Wes Baynes, Neill Byrne, Chris Lever (Dan Preston 46), Matty McGinn; Robbie Booth, Charlie Barnett, Mike Grogan, Sean Clancy (Andy Owens 46); Adam Farrell, Tony Gray (Russell Benjamin 85). Subs (not used): Mike Phenix, Andy Pryce (gk).
Boston (3-5-2):Lewis King; Stefan Galinski, Scott Garner, Carl Piergianni; Liam Marrs (Ian Ross 78), Ben Milnes, Indy Aujla (Conor Marshall 65), Jake Hall, Rene Steer; Marc Newsham, Ben Fairclough. subs (not used): Charley Sanders, Gary Mills, Sam Vince (gk)
Referee: Ryan Johnson
Attendance: 1,659 (80 visitors)
Post Game
After several of us had vented our anger at the ref and clapped the Pilgrims players off the pitch, I was expecting a mob of Telford fans to be waiting by the exit to our end of the ground, as they had done in 2011, but luckily there was no trouble. I went to their club shop for a programme (£2.50, pretty good to be fair) and me, Ian and Adam got talking to their shop manager about the game and the season, before deciding to head back to the Swan hotel to catch a bit of the Cardiff v Sunderland game, this was because the train to Boston left Notts at 8:50pm and we didn’t need to leave Tamworth until 7:36pm, so we had an hour or so to fill.
After a loss to Adam at pool (by fouling on the black ball!), we saw half an hour and decided to get going at 6pm. Adam came with us even though he had a ticket to go from Wellington to Boston. Despite a brief worry where we took the wrong exit on the motorway, we got to Tamworth and I said my goodbyes to Ian. Adam and I were going to grab a Dominoes but he needed the loo. So we went to the main entrance and just checked the train times.
The 1936 to Nottingham had been cancelled due to a lack of a driver! Luckily, Tamworth has a board showing the fastest train to X, Y and Z. The next one to Notts was 19:10… we had 1 minute to run to Platform 3 and catch it.
We made it… with (as it turned out) 2 minutes to spare. We thought we had just escaped the possibility of being stranded in Notts overnight, but Adam noted that we could’ve got the 7:40 to Derby and then one more to Nottingham and just got there in time to get the last train to Boston at 8:51pm
So we got to Nottingham at 8pm and had 50 minutes, so we got a bite to eat before boarding the train to Nottingham. Luckily, the journey seemed to be over in a flash- the joys of having company with you! We finally landed at 10:23 and I got in at 10:35pm
So I’m now writing this whilst watching England drop catch after catch and Australia getting ever closer to going 4-0 up after 4 tests, but it has been a really enjoyable day… except for that 2nd half!
Forza Boston
Match Rating- 7/10- Took 40 minutes to get going but the 2nd half was better. Late drama too.
BUFC performace- 7/10- Created a few chances but when we did, we should’ve made more of them. Can’t miss 2 simple headers and a penalty against the top end teams. Solid at the back largely.
Atmosphere- 7/10- A few of us sung for pretty much 90 minutes . Telford fans only got going 2nd half.
Food/Drink- 9/10. £10 for 2 fish and chips and they were good. Can’t knock it. £6.20 for 2 pints was acceptable
Ground- 9/10. Apart from the uncovered side needing a roof and possibly a slightly bigger home end, its ideal for us.
Overall Day out- 8/10- Not too often I’ve really made a day of it but with some good company it was really nice, just needed a better result.
Thanks for reading- Happy New Year
Josh
Match Shot taken early in the 2nd half
Under The Floodlights 