Fylde 9, Boston 2: The Galactic Capitulation
The messages started rolling in as the score went viral, a steady stream of mirth, horror and bewilderment. In that sense my phone mirrored the terraces, where baffled fans weren’t quite sure whether to stay or leave, or laugh or cry, or simply curl up and cringe at the sheer embarrassment of it all. “It’s […]
Gregg Smith: the new Mickey Nuttell?
A cold, grim night in Ilkeston. The clock said 83. Boston United were playing badly and heading for yet another defeat. Little surprise there: the Boston United of eight years ago were not very good, and the New Manor Ground was a ground no-one ever looked forward to visiting.
Boston United’s Road To Nowhere
It has been two and a half years since I wrote about the future for the Boston Standard. So last weekend, in a post-Darlington pique, I decided to go take a look at it.
Winning Wars With His Head: Denton Ends Boston’s Season
For as long as there are football matches, there will be people who turn up determined not to watch them. Such was the case during Boston United’s season-ending defeat at North Ferriby on Sunday afternoon, during which one Pilgrims fan – having ‘occupied’ the stand where some local children had chosen to watch the game […]
Derby Days: Who *ARE* Boston United fans supposed to hate?
When Trinity manager Steve Housham sat down with the BBC’s Rob Makepeace last week and, with a smirk so smug it was literally audible, rolled out a clichéd, finger-based observation about Boston’s townsfolk, he probably thought he was striking a great blow to his bête noire, Dennis Greene, and dumping a gallon of napalm onto […]
Farewell To All That: The Best and Worst of 2015
For all the terrible reasons you already know about, 2015 is a year many will be happy to see the back of. If it wasn’t the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent civilians, it was floods. And if it wasn’t floods, it was dead children on beaches. And if it wasn’t dead children on beaches, it was bombs on planes. […]
Great Phantom Signings Of Our Time: Jerrome Sobers
Jerrome Sobers, Ipswich Town, 2004/2005 It’s a bleak February in 2005, and having sent Greg Strong packing – and with Paul Ellender of course suspended – Boston United’s defence consisted of two old traffic cones, an old lawnmower… and Pilgrim The Panther.
From Fanzines To Punk Football: The Resistance Endures
Half time during a dull Manchester derby and the advert for a well-known betting company arrives like a lorry crashing through your living room.
The End Of Another Summer: Stockport v Boston
For those who try and ignore pre-season’s procession of A.Triallists and defeats in ex-mining villages, the new domestic season arrives as it always does.
Overhead Kicks: Boston v Chorley
It was around ten past four last Wednesday that the week began to unravel. En-route to Chorley for the first of two play-off games, we arrived at the back of a queue of slow moving traffic that turned into a queue of static traffic that turned into a queue of people-walking-their-dogs-down-the-outside-lane kind of traffic.
The Premier League: English Football’s Vacuous Death Star
When news about the latest blockbuster Sky/BT television deal exploded across Twitter, so scarcely believable were the figures that you could sense the incredulity from those at the press conference. You could almost hear their brains fizzing and popping as they let the news sink in.
Brazil 2014: A Retrospective
So that’s that, then. After quite literally years of fevered build-up, controversial favela pacification, stadium construction nightmares, infrastructure failures and allegations of high-level corruption of the worst order, it’s all over.