Llanellian Road Conference North Saturday, August 16th 2014
Dayle Southwell celebrates putting Boston 2-1 up
As I geared up for my trip abroad, I weighed up the omens and they didn’t suggest 3 points. We’d not won 3 consecutive league games since Gloucester/Brackley/Worcester in 2013 (the first 3 games under Dennis Greene). We hadn’t won successive away league games since that spell either. also, I had never seen us win when going on the train via Crewe… the temptation to go via Shrewsbury on the way there was big…
Colwyn Bay is much easier to get to (and from) from Birmingham than Nottingham or Boston. I left King’s Norton at 1007 and was soon on the 1036 towards Crewe. Surprisingly, there weren’t too many Villa fans on this train and also a lack of festival goers on their way to Stafford for the V Fest.
In all honesty it was unremarkable until I got to Crewe. From there, I was on a Virgin train to ~Chester packed with race goers for Chester races… all suited and booted, all on the lash and almost all speaking in Cheshire-scouce accents.
Then the journey became interesting. Having got off at Chester just after midday, the train towards Colwyn Bay got delayed by 10 minutes. In this time (actually 15) the platform became very busy and it was now standing room only on the train…
Had the service left on time (and not 20 minutes late), there would have been plenty of spare seats but now it was 45 minutes of standing with screaming kids on a 2 coach train. Hello Skeggy train!
At 1:25 we rolled into Colwyn Bay and I began the long walk uphill to the ground, in Old Colwyn. The dilapidated pier was still just about standing and works were still going on to restored the beach area but as I started to go uphill, the team bus passed me. A bit late as it was now 1:45. I caught up with another Boston fan who had stayed in Llandudno and chatting to him made the walk seem a lot shorter than it did when I went in April.
Upon arriving at Llanellian Road, I paid £7 to get in and £3 for a programme so devoid of content it was embarrassing (we charge £3 for a 66 page edition voted the best in the league for the last 2 seasons). I went into the bar, which I didn’t do last time. Man Utd v Swansea was on and upon sipping Budweiser at £3.50 a bottle, had a laugh at the Mancs getting beat by Swansea (even if it rendered my accumulator worthless).
There was still a lack of fans at this stage and when ordering a decent enough burger (£2) I was told the fans bus had been stuck on the Woodhead section between Sheffield & Stockport (hence why the team bus rocked up later than normal). Most of the fans that were here had gone via Stoke. Those fans eventually turned up at 3:10pm.
So as the game got underway with all the atmosphere of a pre season friendly, we survived an early scare as Bay hit the post and Sam Vince did well to stop the follow-up. But once we settled down we got on top as Danny Meadows missed a great chance at the back stick following Steer’s delightful cross before a Scott Garner shot took a slight deflection through a crowded penalty area and rolled slowly into the corner to the delight of the 70 or so Boston fans who had finally all arrived.
Carl Piergianni put a header narrowly wide minutes later as we threatened to kill the game off in the first half, but in the 2nd half, Colwyn Bay came out better and after hitting the bar moments before, scored after an hour following a left wing set piece.
That, and some 50/50 calls going their way threatened to cause frustration among our players and the game went scrappy for 15 minutes but finally from Zak Mills’ long throw (despite having no run up to work with), Dayle Southwell got in front of him man to nod past the keeper into his right hand corner.
Dayle Southwell celebrates his penalty which put Boston 3-1 up
Shortly after, substitute Kaine Felix went on a run and was brought down inside the box, with Southwell calmly rolling in the penalty to settle the game. Another sub, Stefan Galinski, hit the post with a 20 yard free kick soon after as we threatened to score a hatful but the game petered out in the end, although there was just enough time for the home side to reduce the arrears with only seconds remaining.
Fortunately, it was the last kick so there was no nervy finish and the away contingent of all 259 present basked in the unthinkable of 3 straight wins and maintaining our perfect start… typically, it is Guiseley as the only other team on 9 points and it’s typical of them to deny us a week at the top, thanks to their superior goal difference.
The journey home via Shrewsbury felt quite long but all worth it. Luckily I avoided all the fighting on a train near Nuneaton and none of my trains were delayed as a result.
Colwyn Bay (4-4-2): Josh Ollerenshaw; Lanre Olapade, Joel Bembo-Leta, Tom Clarke, Louis Moss; Obi Anoruo, Tom Buckley, Chris Noone (Adam Hodgson 82), Aaron Rey (Jake Parker 70); Rob Hopley (Prince Haywood 58), Marc Williams. Subs (not used): Denislav Pilliner, Josh Clark (gk).
Boston (4-3-3): Sam Vince; Zak Mills, Scott Garner, Carl Piergianni, Rene Steer; Conor Marshall(Niall Doran 65), Michael Hollingsworth, Danny Meadows; Dayle Southwell, Chris Dickinson (Kaine Felix 65), David Fallah (Stefan Galinski 77). Subs (not used): Duran Reynolds, Andy Hewitt (gk).
Referee: Matthew Corlett.
Attendance: 259 (about 70 Boston)
Thanks for reading
Josh
Under The Floodlights 