Aggborough Conference North Saturday 27th April 2014
Boston United’s season, playoff hopes and 9 game unbeaten run came to a sorry and somewhat undeserved conclusion as their small hopes of a playoff place disappeared amidst an unusally lacklustre performance against Worcester.
Boston, needing a win and hope that Guiseley lost at home to Gloucester to sneak into the playoffs were never in the hunt in what was possibly our worst performance all year.
Some of the travelling support by the end of the game
Thanks to the incredible home performance to beat title-chasing North Ferriby, combined with Guiseley surprisingly being held 1-1 at bottom club Workington, meant that there was still something to play for on the final day. After waiting to see what others decided to do in order to get there, it was eventually the minibus route- unusually for me, as Tom had managed to get one relatively cheap (£20).
They were kind enough to pick me up at Tesco’s in Clifton which meant that also, I could hang around the house a little long, as they were setting off at 9:30 and wouldn’t be in till around 11:15. Normally, I’d be leaving the house at 10 for this one…
The text came at quarter past, as predicted. I made my way to Tesco as the rain began to pour but seeing as the ground had cover on all 4 sides, I opted for the hoodie and not the coat and after purchasing additional bog roll for the game (on top of the 41 remaining balloons I had) and met the other lads on the bus. There were 7 of us and the driver and a generally upbeat atmosphere was present as Oasis’ collection was played out over the course of the 2 hour journey to Kidderminster.
Sadly, we were playing at a neutral venue. Worcester’s old ground, St. George’s Lane, was demolished after last season and with them being unable to get their own ground sorted, they were forced to relocate to Aggborough (a ground where my previous 2 trips with Boston in Football League days were 0-0 and a 0-2 reverse- not exactly great memories). St. George’s Lane was a really nice old fashioned ground and being close to the station in the town with direct trains from Birmingham, it was a nice away day. (I went twice, a 0-3 in 2012 and a 3-0 last season- the only time in the last 3 seasons we have strung 3 league wins together)
Main stand, Aggborough
There were a few minibuses going and we were cautious about alcohol on the bus, given that Boston police were expected to be tracking the buses. The TownEnders bus apparently had 150 bottle on board and got stopped outside Leicester- luckily all of them had gone by then! Ours was far more sedate but we’d need to find somewhere to get rid of the bits we did have.
A service station near the M42 at Tamworth was the spot for a comfort break and, for me, hot food via Greggs (got to keep that diet going!) where we met a few buses full of Swindon fans on their way to Notts County and some Leeds fans on their way to smashing up Birmingham (quite literally in the case of the St. Andrews toilets).
After 20 minutes or so, we were back underway. Nick then text me to say he’d been paid and was making a dash from Stafford to Kidderminster on the train (due in at 2:15). We had a pretty good ride meant that we were in Kidderminster before 1:30 where the dreaded sirens came whistling past us and pulled the bus over. We were genuinely worried they’d see some of the rubbish on board and get twitchy over that but fortunately it was a Boston police officer asking if there were any pyrotechnics on board (there’d been the incident at Solihull and they weren’t keen on repeating it). Luckily the lads who were involved weren’t even on our bus and they let us go quite quickly. We found somewhere to drop the rubbish off before parking up at the ground and hastily looking for the designated pub for Boston fans and their toilets- desperate was an understatement!
Pre-Game in the bar
They’d given us the home portion of their sports bar. There’s 2 big sections- 1 for home fan and 1 for away fans round by the corner of the ground. We were in the home section, which also had a snooker and pool hall fr use outside of matchdays. There were already quite a few Boston fans in there and speaking of snooker, we caught the end of Ronnie O’Sullivan’s 13-11 win in the World Championships 2nd round, but a few were clearly worse for wear and one bloke just fell back and collapsed in front of me!
Once it became apparent he seemed to be in a bad way, I thought to ask at the bar and then to a steward outside for some first aid. By now it was 2:20 and we were thinking about going in the ground… that was not the best choice as a storm came across the ground and the rain absolutely lashed down for a good 10 minutes. The goalmouths turned into bogs and in my desperation just to find cover, I didn’t get a match programme and only as an afterthought, I headed for the snack bar.
The rain lashing down prior to kickoff
£3 for a burger which wasn’t the best seemed steep, as did the other prices. Nick met me at this point, having got off his train and made the short walk to the ground. The half of the south terrace which we were allocated was filling up quite quickly and by 2:45 was fairly busy. There were also 50 or so sat in the stand to our right. Balloons being pumped up, inflatables on the go, confetti being thrown around and bog roll going all over the place, it was a really good atmosphere from the support (later confirmed at 306)
BUFC fans before kickoff
The game began well…. not ours but news filtered through that Guiseley had let in an early goal and that drew the loudest cheer of the day from our fans…. perhaps Gloucester had scored too early but for those 20 minutes, there was an electric atmosphere, even if we only sang one song continuously!
I’d like to talk about the game but really the first half was so poor it looked like 2 teams on the lash. Worcester were poor and we were dire. But for a good save by Lewis King from Daniel Nti and a couple of poor misses by Worcester strikers- one of those not helped by the ball getting stuck in the muddy goalmouth.
North Terrace (home fans)
By now, ex Pilgrim Adam Boyes had put Guiseley 2-1 up and that was pretty much that for our hopes. amazing how he missed from 6 yards to win that epic semi final 3 years ago yet was banging them in for fun at the fag end of the season (11 in 10 or something like that) but that still didn’t stop the party on the terraces- Boston fans wanting to enjoy their last day out for a while.
Whatever Dennis Greene said at half time clearly had no effect on our players- we were still awful and it was no surprise that, after a header from Aaron Brown went just over, and following a shout for the ball crossing the line that from the return cross, Nti stooped in at the near post to divert it in.
Then, shock horror, we actually had a chance. Jamie McGhee had got into the box despite being tugged back. The ref played advantage and his cutback fell for Miller, but his goalbound effort was superbly saved by Jose Veiga. From the next attack, Tyler Weir was given the freedom of Kidderminster to run into and he banged in a long range shot past Lewis King to effectively seal the match.
Boston fans in good spirits despite the end result
The game followed a similar pattern with us lacking any invention and creativity and Worcester dominating midfield. With 15 minutes to go, they grabbed a 3rd as an excellent strike from Weir- his 2nd long rang goal of the match- found King’s top left corner (though actually it turned out to get a nick off Zak Mills on the way).
Then, in the closing minutes, Stefan Galinski was sent off for a professional foul when Ebby Nelson-Addy was running at goal It seemed harsh, as he was going away from goal and there didn’t seem to be an obvious goalscoring opportunity but that didn’t dampen the atmosphere of the 306 Boston fans, who cheered the team off at the of what had been a largely positive season, but one which was ultimately decided by only winning 5 league games away all season and taking 1 point out of 15 against the top 5 away from home.
A nice touch from the players and manager to come over and applaud the fans, who were outstanding today (as is generally the case with the away support). One or two looked forlorn- Ricky Miller in particular. Will he be here in August? Ian Ross had played his last game for us, a few will get released but hopefully the likes of Garner/Piergianni/Newsham/Miller/King/Steer/Marshall/McGhee (and one or two others) will be with us next year and we can build from there.
Players applauding the support at the end
So it was back on to the bus after wishing those well over the summer- 4 months before I’ll see most of them again… the mood wasn’t too downhearted on the way back- we all knew that it was going to take a miracle- it would’ve been worse if we only need a point or it was in our hands.
The journey back didn’t take too long either- we were back in Nottingham by 7pm where I hopped out and wished the boys farewell… see you next season. Let’s give it a real good go.
Worcester (4-4-2): Jose Veiga; Graham Hutchison, Wayne Thomas, Aaron Brown (Josh Smith 80), Tyler Weir; Martin Devaney (Ethan Moore 7), George Williams, Ellis Deeney, Aaron Williams (James Lemon 80); Daniel Nti, Ebby Nelson-Addy. Subs (not used): Aaron Farrell, Leigh Bedwell (gk).
Boston (3-5-2): Lewis King (Andy Hewitt 78); Stefan Galinski, Scott Garner, Carl Piergianni; Zak Mills, Junior Konadu (Ben Milnes 55), Jay Dowie, Liam Agnew, Rene Steer; Jamie McGhee (Spencer Weir-Daley 70), Ricky Miller. Subs (not used): Indy Aujla, Ben Fairclough.
Referee: Michael D’Aguilar
Attendance: 894 (306 visitors)
Game Rating- 5/10. Dire first half from both teams. Worcester at least showed some semblance of quality in the 2nd half with two good strikes
BUFC performance- 3/10. Really, our worst showing all season- even worse than Oxford (H) and Ferriby (A). 1 chance in 90 minutes says a lot for a team normally full of goals. Very ragged and sloppy sadly.
Ground- 9/10. At least Worcester have moved into a nice ground, but I hope from a personal view (not seen us score here in 3 games) and from their point of view that they get back into Worcester ASAP and preferably near one of the train stations! Cover on all 4 sides, terraces at both ends, good noise being created at our end.
Atmosphere- 9/10. Whilst the home fans were either drowned out or didn’t have much to chant about, the away support was top notch, even if we mostly sung 1 song all game!
Prices- 5/10. Entry at £8 wasn’t too bad given the ground but £3 for my burger was pushing it, the prices for the other food items seemed quite steep too. I forgot to get a (or read anyone else’s) programme so can’t comment on that
Day out- 7/10. Despite the result and poor performance, it was a really good atmosphere to finish off the season. Hoping for more next season like this.
Next Game- I’ll try and squeeze in 1 or 2 more. It could be Southam v Nuneaton Griff in the Midland Football Combination but that is not confirmed. Would like to do a playoff game in one of the lower leagues or maybe even one down south a bit.
See you soon,
Josh
(Note, the title was in no way to demean Worcester, who were far better than we were, but the players didn’t deserve such a poor finish in what’s been a decent season)
Under The Floodlights 