Victory Park Conference North Saturday 8th November 2014
Victory Park- Grass Bank End
How quickly things change in football. 20 minutes into our last game, when Fylde took the league- there was no disappointment amongst many of the 900 or so in attendance, yet around 90 minutes later, the Pilgrims’ fans had new belief as we’d beaten a side uneaten in 14 by 3 goals to 1.
This Saturday it was a much anticipated trip to Victory Park- Chorley. I’d never been to this part of Lancashire and it was one of only 4 grounds not ticked off from the Conference North roster. A few of us were training it too. Bonus!
Chorley had been going great guns at home and I had no idea which Boston would rock up but at a bit after 10, I parted with £26 and left the heavy rain behind me in King’s Norton for, well, yet more rain. Expecting to be surrounded by Wolves fans (on their way to a 1215 mauling at Derby), I got into New Street with some trepidation, but alas, they’d all gone to the far platform. The wait (with Reece) was about 20 minutes and soon passed by.
Sadly, our train to Manchester was full of… you guessed it, southern Manchester Utd fans. It was truly nauseating stuff and Reece & I had to sit in a bike storage unit until we got to Wolverhampton, where some shoppers cleared 3 seats for us. I made sure to keep one for Nick, who we picked up 15 minutes later.
Nick on board, we crawled our way through Stoke and got to Manchester on time (amazingly). Also amazingly, was Tom’s train being on time. This was welcome news, as it was a tight turnaround at Piccidilly station (which gets horribly overcrowded at times), although to be fair, the Chorley train would be behind his Liverpool train in the queue.
Only a few minutes late, we boarded another packed train. This time it was the transpennine train to Chorley. Luckily it was only 35 minutes and nothing particularly remarkable happened, apart from Liverpool scoring and letting one in soon after, and discovering Bolton’s Macron Stadium is right outside Horwich Parkway station. By 1:30 we were rolling into Chorley and meeting Shergy and Hallgarth, who had both slogged it up from the deep south (and by chance had their seat reservations next to eachother!)
Deep covered end
Grass Bank Side
Despite the ground being an easy walk away and KFC being half way house, we had a wander through the town, though all we found was a market and, to Tom’s horror, a Chippy which ran out of cheese and chips in his bid for chips,cheese and curry sauce! I parted £2.20 for sausage and chips and, as usual, did not finish it!
The weather at this point had cleared up and although blowy, wasn’t too bad. We headed for the ground, although we ended up going into a tyre factory first time having decided to follow a dad and his lad, believing they knew where it was… Luckily, we saw the team bus (which had parked on someone’s drive) and soon found the turnstiles.
Once there, I got a programme (£2.50, about par value) and got in for just £7 as I walked through the concessions gate (not grumbling). The ground is quite big and old fashioned. Down one side is very little- merely flat standing and a fenced off grass bank. Opposite it is an old but impressive main stand, a little like Worcester’s old stand, with a paddock at the front for standing. At the far end was a small terrace with closed grass banks either side and at the other end was a large, deep (albeit shallow banked) terrace which was covered towards the rear. Certainly one of the better grounds we’ll see this season and also a rare 4 figure away day crowd. (Final figure was 1,114 with about 100 or more of us).
I grabbed myself a quick cuppa (£1) and watched the dying embers of another Liverpool defeat on the big screen before setting up camp at the grass bank end. The acoustics at both ends were superb, allowing for us to make a decent racket.
Interesting viewing position…
Main stand 2nd half
We started well too, Mark Jones having one ruled out for offside, but not before I’d got carried away and nearly faceplanted the terraces in excitement! But we kept up the pressure, with the hosts’ keeper Danijel Nizic being kept busy and Scott Garner flashing a header narrowly over.
The hosts also suffered a blow when Scott Garner put in a crunching, but legitimate tackle on skipper Andy Teague, forcing him off injured.
It took 36 minutes but we did get our rewards as Kaine Felix, so often in the past lacking the end product, laid on a peach for Dayle Southwell at the back stick and he couldn’t miss with a header. Moments later, we almost got a bizarre 2nd, as Nizic’s clearence hit Felix and ballooned inches wide. Garner then hit the bar from an effort following a Mills long throw.
It was a superb first half showing and we expected the hosts to come out all guns blazing 2nd half… it didn’t happen. As the weather turned for the worse, Felix got himself into the box and his driven shot took a deflection and took it into the net to put us firmly in control.
With Nizic (the Workington keeper who played a blinder against us in March) injured and battling a head wind, Chorley could barely clear the half way line and we could or should have added to our tally (a 4 goal win would’ve taken us above the Magpies). The only sour moment occurring as we decided to slowly give the ball back for a goal kick. Our gamesmanship didn’t sit well with one local, who let us know what he thought… he was soon drowned out by the excellent and vocal travelling support. Let me say that the rest of the Chorley fans were top notch with us, although they hardly made a peep all game in a somewhat underwhelming performance by their fans.
In all honest Chorley never looked scoring and it was a surprise when they bundled in from a corner in the 93rd minute, which led to a tense finish where a few high balls got pumped into the box but we held firm, and it would be a steal of Great Train Robbery proportions had they got out of this with their home record in tact. 2-1 massively flattered a team who lied 4th before play. We really were outstanding- arguably our most complete performance since the 2-0 win over North Ferriby (or Ferriby Town, for those at the BBC) last Easter.
The underpass at Chorley station
With the rain in full pelt, we made our way to the station and hopped on an overcrowded train full of revellers going to Manchester. This was late and it meant we got stuck behind a stopping service, resulting in a 15 minute delay, so we missed our 1805 train. But we did get the 1825 train, which quickly filled up with them southern glory hunters, all donning the megastore bags, half and half scarves and all the general cuntish things that most Man Utd fans tend to do (they beat Crystal Paalce 1-0). Nick and I were sat at a table and joined by 2 of these, though they seemed sound enough. Sadly Reece had to get out of his seat for a reservation and ended up in the next carriage. Our train didn’t really empty and when I hopped off at Brum just after 8pm, it was still standing room only.
But probably the best away day all things considered since Solihull late last season. Suddenly things looked brighter for the Pilgrims.
Chorley (4-4-2): Danijel Nizic; Mark Ross, Andy Teague (Adam Mather 10), Tom Smyth, Paul Jarvis; Harry Winter, Dale Whitham, Jake Cottrell (Chris Almond 58), Jack Dorney (Darren Stephenson 52); James Dean, Josh Hine. Subs (not used): Adam Roscoe, Jack Lynch.
Boston (4-4-2): Joel Dixon; Liam Marrs, Zak Mills, Carl Piergianni, Rene Steer; Kaine Felix, Scott Garner, Kyle Dixon, Greg Tempest (Conor Marshall 77); Dayle Southwell (David Fallah 85), Mark Jones (Zeph Thomas 77). Subs (not used): Michael Hollingsworth, Marc Newsham.
Referee: Tom Nield.
Attendance: 1,114.
Next up- There may be another local game but if not, it’s a home game against Chorley in the league again! Then we’re at Gainsborough in midweek (but I can’t go) and then to Leamington (should be a nice away day, even in November)
Come on you yellows!
Thanks for reading,
Josh
Under The Floodlights 