Tamworth 2-0 Boston United
The Lamb Ground FA Trophy Rd 2 Saturday December 14th 2013
Boston fans in full voice before kick-off
Pre Game
Finally, the game I’d waited for 12 days for had come round. Following wins over Redditch (4-1) and away at Southport (2-1), Boston United fans had the scarcely believable prospect of a 5th cup tie of the season to look forwards to (after winning 1 match in the FA Cup too).
Being Tamworth, it was also relatively close to Boston and I had friends in the area, whom I quickly phoned from my maths office at Trent College once the draw was made to see if they were up for it. They were!
My plans were hit somewhat as my housemate of 2 years at Uni, Ian, (lives near Walsall now), suffered burns in a kitchen accident and would be too ill to make the game. a pity, as he’s not been to one despite all my pestering that should we get a team around the Midlands, he could go with me.
The night before the game, I had a text from another supporter, living in Ancaster- Tom Graves. He could get to Nottingham but trains from Ancaster are more rare than Boston cup runs, so my hopes of getting to Tamworth early and finding the club’s bar to drink in beforehand were moved back- for I would leave Nottingham at 12:41 and be in Tamworth for 1:36pm.
During the night, and only as I awoke to find England somehow 55-0 in the cricket, Nick, who often gets to games with me from Stafford, was struggling for money due to travel commitments for a pending new job as Carlton Town’s chief scout. Seeing as it would likely be his last game for quite a while, and with money being no real worry for me (yet), I said I’d help him out if needed. We were on our way.
After spending all morning turning no less than NINE newspapers into confetti, filling a big Sainsbury’s 10p bag, I was ready to go. I caught the 12:03 bus and got to Nottingham, where I was nearly ran over by a bus (in the wrong lane) in my hurry to cross the road and get a Gregg’s sausage roll. Time was of the essence and at 12:30, I joined what seemed like a 30-person queue for tickets. Thankfully, with 4 people on duty and some families, I got to the front quickly and hastily ordered a £10.15 return ticket to Tamworth- possibly my lowest fare all season (disregarding the Carlton v Loughborough game I did with Nick a month back).
Loaded with Confetti!
Having got on the train, at Platform 7a, I found myself in the furthest forward coach- which was empty. Tom had text me saying his coach was rammed and he’d meet me in my coach- which he soon made his way to. Having spoke to Tom over the internet a lot, I knew who he was, even if today was actually the first time I’d spoken to him in person. He’s a really good lad- plays footy in his spare time, tries to get to Boston games when he can- and being of similar ages, we could relate to each other very well and the company meant that the journey to Tamworth was over in a flash- unlike my experiences of the Long Eaton-Nottingham ‘service’ the night before.
Once at Tamworth, I met up with Nick- who had been waiting 15 minutes after his train got in at 1:20 and we decided that the railway in Tamworth is probably the height of architecture and heading for the ground would be our best bet.
Being my first trip to Tamworth, I’d prepared a very quick map, but given I am a maths teacher- I ought to have got my Year 9 pupils to make it for me seeing as we did ratio and proportion recently!
My… Map?
The map was very dodgy and unsurprisingly, we took a wrong turn towards the footy ground, stumbling upon a Royal Mail sorting office rather than floodlights. So we made our way back- me trying to look composed and unflustered, but we did see the BUFC supporters coach go by and followed that to where we should’ve gone over a roundabout and by 2:05, we were at the ground.
With minimal facilities, we decided to head inside. I paid for myself and for Nick- £9 per head for students (despite the stewards saying no student discounts)… something I found amusing until KI later checked my ticket, which said £7 on it… maybe I did get fobbed off!
The programme (£1.50 was pathetic- a 7 page handout with no results and minimal features- like a throwback to the old style team sheet programmes and nothing else. The food was a joke. £4.50 for a bacon sandwich, £3.50 for a 1/4 pounder, £2.50 for chips and £2 for a bottle of pop which had no lid on it. I went for pop and chips and then made my way to the central ‘pen’ behind the goal.
I say pens because there were brick walls every 10 yards or so, like the grounds in the 1980’s used to be like (only with metal fences and pens), so the 200 of us (superb effort for a trophy game near Xmas with it being out 4th straight away game on a Saturday) who would eventually make it in, would be kept in groups of about 30-40 in each pen.
The Game
Tamworth (4-4-2): Cameron Belford; Jordan Keane, Wayne Thomas, Ben Richards-Everton, Tony Capaldi (Kaiyne Woolery 81); Andy Todd, Lloyd Kerry, David Morgan, Andy Haworth (Mark Wright 90); Justin Richards, Richard Peniket.
Boston (3-5-2): Sam Vince; Stefan Galinski, Scott Garner, Carl Piergianni; Liam Marrs, Ian Ross,Conor Marshall, Jake Hall (Ben Milnes 76), Rene Steer; Marc Newsham (Spencer Weir-Daley 72),Ricky Miller (Netan Sansara 82).
Referee: Wayne Barratt
Attendance: 668 (200 visitors)
The evening sets in at Tamworth
So we were singing from 2:30 onwards and would rarely stop. My confetti went all over the shop at 2:50 but spurred on by our best away following outside of the county since North Ferriby in August, Boston soon got to grips with Tamworth and were able to match them from very early on, despite the home side’s relatively large presence throughout their starting XI.
Dennis Greene made 2 changes to the side that lots at Guiseley last Saturday- Lewis King was cup tied so Sam Vince came in goal and Spencer Weir-Daley was benched in place of Stefan Galinski as Boston reverted to a 3-5-2.
Clear-cut chances were few and far between in a poor first half- the wind blowing towards the Tamworth goal not helping either side as Boston over-hit many long balls and Tamworth struggled for any kind of rhythm.
Ricky Miller had an effort straight at home keeper Cameron Belford whilst Tamworth also created useful openings and were denied a possible penalty when Scott Garner appeared to handle- though we were 120 yards away from the action to be clear.
Then, on 38 minutes, Boston’s best chance came, when Ricky Miller’s low cross ran across the face of goal- only for there to be nobody in the right place, then a closing Liam Marrs blasted wide from around the far post with the goal gaping. It was a poor miss but Boston almost took advantage 3 minutes later of a mix-up in the home sides’ ranks through Newsham, but agonisingly, his effort hit Belford and rolled to safety for Tamworth.
As the 2nd half started, Boston were again holding their own and had several crosses in front of the Tamworth goal- however none were of sufficient quality to deliver a goal.
But then Tamworth gradually built up pressure. Ben Richards-Everton should’ve done better with a header on 58 minutes and then wasted a dangerous free kick 3 minutes later.
But on 64 minutes, they did score. An attacking surge left them 3-on-3 and courtesy of Rene Steer slipping and a stumbling Carl Piergianni, Andy Todd found himself with only Vince to beat, and despite Vince getting a hand on his shot, it trickled into the goal.
That knocked the stuffing out of Boston and after Newsham had gone off with what looked like a head injury and Hall had been replaced by Milnes, Tamworth killed the game off on 79 minutes with a neat goal, well taken from 15 yards by ex-Pilgrim (who I had to ask for his name!) Justin Richards… remember him? Me neither!
Boston were fortunate not to concede as Vince was twice called into action late on as one or two heads went down but the match died out… just like our cup hopes for another season. Still, the majority of the 200 fans had stayed to clap the players off at the end. No lack of effort, but this was one of those days where we didn’t play as well as we have done and the first time we’ve lost 2 in a row (I BLAME THIS BLOG HAHA!!!) all season- albeit in different competitions.
Post Game
So heading back to the station with Nick, Tom and Adam Hallgarth- another BUFC fan living in Basingstoke, the overriding feeling was one of disappointment, but realization that we were unlikely to win the cup- the £6,000 prize money would’ve helped us bring players in and we can now worry about what now looks like a 9 way fight for promotion. we are 8th place but only 4 points off the leaders.
So as I bode farewell to Nick and Adam at Tamworth, I was with Tom on the train back to Nottingham… again, excellent company and we also got debating about university and my opinions on the Sports Science debate. I told Tom (who said he’s not bright enough for Uni) it was a Mickey Mouse course that you see failures do just for the sake of going to Uni- which didn’t sit too well with a very tidy young lady on her way to Derby (who does Sports Science!)- nor one or two others I suspect, but that’s my £0.02, I’ll stick to it- maybe just not be so vocal about it or I’ll end up beaten into a thousand pieces!
So I’m now sat, at 21:26, posting you this. I hope you find it a good read- I have to pack to go back to Boston tomorrow, but Saturday nights are all about unwinding and sharing memories from the glory of the football away days.
Many Thanks
Josh
Game- 4/10- Poor- the breeze played a major factor as did their height advantage
BUFC performance- 5/10- Off colour once we conceded and rarely looked threatening, especially 2nd half
Ground- 5/10. our end was OK as was one side, but the mains stand isn’t much and the other end is nothing
Atmosphere- 9/10 away, 4/10 home. We sung for nearly 90 minutes- they only got going 2nd half
Day out in general- 8/10. Good little train journey down, good company throughout the day.
Programme- 2/10- Crap. 7 pages- nothing interesting
Food/drink- given the price, 4/10. Food was OK but waaaaaaay too expensive
Under The Floodlights 