Tag: Boston United

A Decade On, Boston’s Rehabilitation Nears Its End

Posted by | Nov 30, 2013 | |

You can still find the plans on the internet, lurking out there hidden with all the other forgotten, abandoned detritus. There are images, architectural conceptions. There’s a picture of the plans being delivered, folder by folder, to the local council. I have a copy of the blueprints somewhere, gathering dust in a long forgotten heap of paperwork in a drawer I haven’t ventured into for years. It is all that remains of Boston United’s aborted stadium plan of nearly a decade ago, a plan that would have seen Boston United move to a new ground on a cabbage field two miles out of town in the Boardsides area and the town’s second team, Boston Town of the United Counties League, flytipped down the appropriately-named Cuckoo’s Land, where the residents simply didn’t want them. It was all for property development, of course. Jon Sotnick was chairman of the club and of Lavaflow, the consortium that owned the club. Everyone seemed to have their fingers in the Lavaflow pie, including the then-manager Steve Evans. York Street, Boston’s home since forever, had always been eyed enviously by property moguls. First by supermarket chains and, when that sector outgrew the footprint afforded by the compact ground, those in the luxury flat market. Similarly, Tattershall Road, Town’s quaint little ground, occupied land just ripe for sixty-odd houses with a broom cupboard for a ‘third...

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In Praise Of The Older Footballer

Posted by | Sep 7, 2013 | |

As you get older, one of the many things that you start to realise that you hadn’t done before is that there comes a point when you start to become older than the footballers that you watch kicking a ball around of a Saturday afternoon. It shouldn’t surprise you to realise  that by the time you hit your mid-thirties you’re older than ninety-five per cent of those appearing on Match Of The Day of a Saturday night, but it does, and from that moment on it isn’t long before that ninety-five per cent has become more or less one hundred per cent, and those few years really do not take very long to pass. Last night, apropos nothing in particular, I was reminded of the continuing playing career of goalkeeper Paul Bastock, who, at some time before eleven o’clock, tweeted that he had to be up early in the morning to play football for St Albans City in the Southern League Premier Division. Bastock reached his fortieth birthday in May 2010, and to still be playing semi-professional football more than three years later is a rare achievement and, moreover, as soon as I noted this particular achievement on Twitter myself, a couple of people replied to me to suggest that his ongoing place in the first team is no fluke. Bastock “is like a fine wine, if anything he...

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Steve Evans Lands In Hot Water Again

Posted by | Sep 12, 2012 | |

Of course, Rotherham United knew what they were getting themselves involved with when they took him on in the first place, but the news earlier this week that manager Steve Evans – subject of the most read post ever to appear on this little website – will now be the subject of a six match stadium ban for his new club over his involvement in some fairly ridiculous scenes earlier this during both during and after a League Two match between Bradford City and his previous club, Crawley Town. A stadium ban is more all-encompassing than a touchline ban. For six matches and with immediate effect, Evans will be banned from attending the ground at which Rotherham United’s first team are playing at any time during a match day, but those taken aback by the ruling should probably be aware that Evans has a lengthy history of such behaviour. In November 2005, Evans was given a £1,000 fine, which was suspended for a year, after admitting to using insulting or abusive words to the match official in a match against Peterborough United the previous month. In February 2006, Evans was escorted from the dug-out by police at half-time during a match between Grimsby Town and Boston United following a complaint of alleged foul and abusive language, which came after an incident during which the Grimsby Town goalkeeper Steve Mildenhall...

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Non-League Videos Of The Week: 15/01/2012

Posted by | Jan 15, 2012 | |

This week’s non-league videos of the week features four matches from the Second Round of the FA Trophy. With only thirty-two teams left in the competition at this stage, the scent of a Wembley final is starting to drift into the air, and our four matches tonight feature twenty-five goals. First up is a match between two clubs that are owned by their supporters, as Ebbsfleet United of the Blue Square Premier play Chester of the Northern Premier League. Our second match sees Salisbury City, of the Blue Square South, play another Blue Square Premier Club, York City. Third up is the match between Dartford and Boston United, and finally Weymouth are at home against Alfreton Town. Our thanks go to those that take the time to record, edit and upload these videos. You can follow Twohundredpercent on Twitter by clicking...

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The Twohundredpercent Pre-Season Predictions: Conference North

Posted by | Aug 11, 2011 | |

Last year was pretty clear cut in the Conference North, Alfreton were pretty much definitely going up despite having a ridiculous backlog of games, the play-off places were fairly clear early on and Redditch were dropping like a stone from around February time, but this season it looks set to be a bit closer at both ends of the table and closer still in the middle. Along with relegated Altrincham and Histon there are the promoted pair of Colwyn Bay and FC Halifax, and the 22nd most northern team at Step 2 – Bishop’s Stortford, shifted over the north/south divide in the fall-out from Rushden and Diamonds’ demise. Bishop’s Stortford, like Histon and like Worcester before them will soon wise up to the difference between the two Step 2 leagues (Gloucester have only ever known the Northern side of the imaginary moving line which hovers over the Conference’s map). PROMOTION CONTENDERS It would be hard to bet against  FC Halifax Town being somewhere near the top of the table, The new boys have bulldozered their way back up the table and boast hot-shot striker Jamie Vardy as one of their key assets and laughed off an offer from Stockport to take him of their hands for a rumoured £50,000. Manager Neil Aspin has made a few key signings and if the Shaymen are as good as all their fans claim...

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