Edgeley Park Conference North Saturday 13th September 2014
How a few days can change football. As I watched a fairly one-sided game at Sutton Coldfield on Tuesday night, Boston were at home to Oxford City hoping to go top of the league…. we lost 7-2.
Having been annoyed that we’d blown a chance to briefly go top, we had to get ourselves up for a trip to the ground which gave us undoubtedly our high of last season (The 4-1 win at Stockport) but with an unbeaten run to build on away from home, hopes were high.
However, given that Stockport is only 80 minutes from Birmingham by train, it is quite expensive thanks to the WCML… £18 was the lowest I could get a ticket for on the day and that was splitting via Stafford. The day would unravel almost immediately…
As we got into New Street at 1155, I had under 10 minutes to get the train to Stockport, however, I looked at the screens and didn’t see an obvious train to get (it should’ve been the 1203 to Edinburgh) but I hung around and by the time I realized which route I was going to go, I was going to be 25 minutes late at Stockport.
I hopped on a Virgin train to Wolverhampton and then once there, caught a train to Stockport. The journey down wasn’t particularly thrilling although it was only an hour on the 2nd train. We pulled into Stockport at 1350 and a mate of mine from school, Aston (who lived in Manchester) decided to come along with me.
The ground is only half a mile from the station and we both figures out that because Stockport County were actually a 2nd tier team only 10-15 years ago that it would be well signposted… it was (and a couple of local fans who clearly noticed me draped in a BUFC shirt and scarf also told us where to go).
Tom then called- he’d made his way up from Sleaford and we went for a quick pint in the Armoury- bumping into a handful of other BUFC fans but by 2:15 we were heading for the ground.
Edgeley Park is comfortably the biggest ground in the league and Stockport have by some distance the highest crowds, despite occupying mid table since they slumped into the 6th tier 2 seasons ago. We were given the Railway End and a bit of the Popular side stand- opting for the latter as it had a roof. However, at £15 for an adult ticket (NTU student card out of date) it was the most I’d paid for a non league game and the stand we were in had a supporting pillar in the worst possible spot for our block.
Boston fans welcome the teams
Worryingly though, the midweek performance (and an unseen by me Dennis Greene Facebook rant) had put plenty of Pilgrims off going so as kickoff grew closer I was left thinking “Where are our fans?”. The Stockport sections also looked short of fans, but I suppose it’s hard to fill a 10,000 capacity ground in the 6th tier. The actual crowd was just over 2,500 but we can’t have taken more than 100, which was very disappointing.
The game had few chances and with one of the few openings, Stockport went ahead through a Jack Ryan header from a corner, but shortly after Dayle Southwell had been superbly denied by home keeper Hurst, from the resulting corner, Carl Piergianni headed in against a former club. Cue the chants of “Knobhead Army” (in reference to what Greene labelled some fans) and then we missed a great chance to lead as Kaine Felix headed over when well placed.
That proved costly as Kristian Dennis bundled in from another set piece (which was given for what seemed a fair tackle) then shortly after the restart and shortly after Southwell shot straight at Hurst from close range when he just had to miss him, Dennis swept home the 3rd for the hosts after a corner was only partially cleared and a miscued volley was allowed to find its way to the striker (who I didn’t see through the post but apparently looked offside).
That started a lot of dissent amongst some of the Boston fans, as ill feelings about Greene’s comments came out and the atmosphere became worryingly similar to that of the dark days of a Jason Lee/Graham Drury home game and we didn’t look threatening… actually, but for a good save by debutant loan keeeper Paul Farman and some near misses we could’ve caved in totally, but instead Soutwell bundled one in with 7 minutes to go and we sensed stealing a result but we didn’t threaten thereafter and our misery was complete when Piergianni was given a straight red for a late tackle which looked wild and dramatic but wasn’t harmful (no worse than one by Ryan on our full back around the hour mark). The game petered out and our great start suddenly looks a bit mediocre as we slip to 7th, having let in 10 in 2 games.
Luckily the walk to the station after the game was short and I was back on the train by 5:15 and despite getting delayed and then stuck behind a stopping service from Wolverhampton to Birmingham, I was able to get home for just after 7pm- whilst sampling the local drunken messes wanting to go to Tamworth!
All in all, a horror day with the bets losing (Hearts drew 0-0 at Dumbarton) and with me facing a million bits of marking to do for school, a long miserable Sunday is in prospect. God knows what the attendance will plummet to for Gloucester at home and god knows what the manager will label some of the fans too! (Though as of the time of writing, he’s in a big debate with me and 2 or 3 other fans on Twitter)
Stockport (4-3-3): Danny Hurst; Mark Lees, Danny Gregson, Stephen O’Halloran, Scott Duxbury; Chris Churchman, Richie Baker (Glenn Belezika 36), Bobby Lofthouse (Nathan Woolfe 56); Jack Ryan, Kristian Dennis, Scott Spencer (Chris Sharp 75). Subs (not used): Jordan Fagbola, Ian Ormson (gk).
Boston (4-3-3): Paul Farman; Zak Mills, Stefan Galinski (David Fallah 57), Carl Piergianni, Rene Steer; Jamie McGhee, Jay Dowie, Danny Meadows (Michael Hollingsworth 46); Kaine Felix (Jack Barlow 81), Scott Garner, Dayle Southwell. Subs (not used): Conor Marshall, Sam Vince (gk).
Referee: Tom Nield.
Attendance: 2,585 (100 Boston at most)
Next game is the Gloucester home game but I eagerly await the FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round draw on Monday… please can we have an away game against someone with a ground I’ve not been to? It’ll probably be Bradford Park Avenue away…
Come On You Yellows!
Thanks for Reading,
Josh
Under The Floodlights 