FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round Draw on Friday: I might be heading for Penrith, Morpeth or Ashington but unfortunately definitely not Alnwick!

Only three days to go until the draw for the Extra Preliminary round of the FA Cup season 2016-17 and the anticipation is building. If you have been following this blog from day one you will know that the way ‘The Road to Wembley from Scotland’ works is that once the draw for the Extra Preliminary round of the FA Cup is made I will establish which of these ties will be staged closest to the Scotland / England border. I will attend that match and I will then follow the winner into the Preliminary round. The winners of that match will then be followed into the first qualifying round ... and so on ... and so on - until I end up at the FA Cup final next May. For each match I will be trying to find a Scottish link and reporting not just on the match but the circumstances surrounding the tie.

So, unable to contain my anticipation I thought which league nearest to the border would supply possible venues for my first tie on Saturday August the 6^th? The EBAC Northern League seemed to be the answer. Looking at a map of the locations of their member clubs I reckoned that Penrith and Alnwick Town were closest to the border. So I got my internet based measuring tape out and found that Penrith are 29 miles from the Scottish border but as the crow flies Alnwick are only 24 miles from the border as it crosses the Cheviots. Brilliant ! Alnwick it is if they are drawn at home.

I then sought out the web presence of Alnwick Town and found they had a great wee web site and an up to date and informative twitter feed. I tweeted them and asked: “Hi ... have you guys been advised that you will definitely be in the FA Cup Extra Prelim rd?”. I got a reply back from Alnwick Town FC and it surprised me: “Just in the FA Vase this season. Need to finish higher in the league for the FA Cup unfortunately.” So, I reckon there must be a rule that only teams in the Northern League Division One (Alnwick are in Division Two) are eligible to compete in the FA Cup. Good luck to Alnwick Town in the FA Vase and thanks for your response. At the risk of sounding like Ted Rogers on the 80s game show “3 2 1” here is the prize I could have won!

The grassy bank behind the goal at Alnwick

 

The pavilion at St James Park Alnwick

So, assuming I have got the bit about Northern League Division One teams being in the draw then it would appear that if Penrith are drawn at home then I am Penrith bound. If Penrith are away then I am headed for either Morpeth or Ashington. If all three are away I may be ploughing a furrow to West Allotment Celtic!

Robbie's penalty, memories of The Inspector and prepping for the Road to Wembley by doing 'The Road to Hampden from Penicuik'

So in this scene setting phase of the blog we reach our final destination. Penicuik Midlothian - location of my current abode. In October 2008 the Donkin family moved back to Scotland - to Penicuik from Boston Lincolnshire. Obviously there were work and family related reasons for doing this but a huge influencing factor was the chance to see my beloved Hearts more often. Football fans will see the sense in this – others will think that perhaps life priorities are a bit skewed. Ever since watching that first FA Cup tie between South Bank and Shildon in 1966 as a wide eyed 8 year old football has influenced the way I have conducted myself in a way that has not been altogether healthy.

I went self employed in 2003 and only entered semi retirement in March of this year. For the first five years of self employment I was doing well and earning more money than I expected. Most weeks I would work between 80 and 100 hours with the only sacred time off being Saturday afternoons to watch the football. In the summer of 2006 I thought why not spend some of this hard earned cash to treat myself to something more exciting than Boston United on a Saturday afternoon. So I bought a Hearts season ticket. The fact that I lived 310 miles from Tynecastle being a minor detail. Of course for the previous 15 years I had been living in Lincolnshire not on the moon so naturally I had managed to see a whole load of Hearts games over the period 1991 – 2006. My great pal Graeme Ogilvie (aka The Inspector) always managed to somehow sort me out with tickets for the big matches. Most notably for the away match in Prague against Sparta in September 2006 in the UEFA Cup. A big group of us sampled that magical atmosphere of Hearts playing away in Europe. Hearts were 2 down from the home leg with no real prospect of winning the tie. This seemed like an irrelevance as the maroon hordes partied in Prague. Hearts played well and drew 0-0 going out 0-2 on aggregate. I can still taste that half chicken that they serve instead of a pie at Czech football grounds.

Hilarity in Prague: The Inspector (left), me and Merky stalwart Paul Dixon (right)

Graeme also sorted out tickets for me and my son Brian for the Scottish Cup finals in 1998 when Hearts beat Rangers at Parkhead and in 2006 when Hearts thrashed the mighty Gretna on penalties. It was great to keep in touch with my old mates supporting Hearts and for the home games I attended when on loan to Boston then Saturday lunchtimes in the Merchiston Hearts Supporters Club with the Inspector holding court were very special. I guess between 1991 and 2006 I was averaging about 5 or 6 Hearts matches a season – nowhere near enough!

The Scottish Cup run in 2006 and the atmosphere at the semi final and final matches at Hampden was the clincher for the season ticket purchase for season that followed. In the semi final Hearts beat city rivals Hibs at Hampden 4-0 with Paul Hartley scoring a hat-trick. Some people though are never happy. Our group was about 12 strong and was being led by The Inpsector. One minute to go and Robbie Neilson mis-places as pass. Davie Greig bellows “Neilson you are a fucking disgrace – you should never be allowed to pull on a maroon jersey”. The Inspector intervenes: “Davie, we are 4-0 up … against Hibs …. In a Scottish Cup semi final … and there is only 1 minute to go. What more do you want !?” Indeed. What more does anyone want from life?

In the final Hearts beat Gretna on penalties after the match finished 1-1 after extra time. For most of the afternoon it was like being awake in a nightmare, with Hearts expected to win easily we were looking to pick up the cup without any hassle and head back happy to Gorgie to start celebrating. Arrangements had been made for later that evening. Hearts scored in the first half but could not shrug off spirited resistance from the minnows. Fifteen minutes to go Gretna equalise. Oh my God the unthinkable can’t happen – can it? All through extra time the Hearts were the better team and had a stick-on penalty claim turned down. As the clock ticked down and the match entered the final minute my mind turned to the penalties that would follow. I tried to convince myself it would be ok. Hearts Paul Hartley was the penalty king and he would surely set things off in the right direction. No sooner had this thought entered my head but Hartley kicked out petulantly at a Gretna player right in front of us. The red card was brandished. The penalty contest would be conducted without Hearts trump card. I felt sick in the pit of my stomach. Steven Pressley converts the first penalty for Hearts, the Gretna first choice kicker responds in kind. Then Robbie Neilson walks from the centre circle towards the penalty area at the other end of the pitch. Robbie is now the Hearts manager and is well respected and loved. In 2006 he was not nearly so popular with some of the Hearts support – see Davie Greig’s comment in the previous paragraph. “On no – no fuckin Neilson!” was the cry from Big Davie. Some of our group turned their backs on the action as they could not watch. WHHOOOF! The ball was despatched to the left the keeper dived to the right. A textbook penalty from Robbie – oh ya beauty! After this the result was never in doubt. Skacel and Pospisil took encouragement from Neilson’s intervention and scored a couple more for the good guys. Craig Gordon saved one and the fourth Gretna kicker missed. Hearts won 4-2 on penalties and we did indeed celebrate. After that I just had to get a season ticket and move back north as soon as it could be arranged.

The much maligned (then) and much lauded (now) Robbie Neilson lifts the Cup in 2006

Since that eventful day in 2006 I have had a season ticket ever since and have missed very few games at Tynecastle. When we moved north in October 2008 I was looking forward to a lifetime of Saturdays at Tynecastle every other weekend in the football season in the company of mates who had become known as the Merky gang – a reference to our pre match drinking, verging on serious alcohol abuse, in the Merchiston Hearts Supporters Club. Things in life never stay the same and in August 2011 my best pal and the orchestrator of our own little band of Hearts supporters Graeme Ogilvie passed away. Rest in Peace Inspector. The Merky gang have dwindled in number since 2011 and where 12 or 13 of us sat bevvying and laughing before the games there are now only 3 or 4 of us marked present at the Merky. I still have my season ticket and there have been some good times on the pitch. In May 2012 Hearts memorably thrashed Hibs 5-1 in the Scottish FA Cup final. Following relegation in 2014 Hearts had a great season in 2014-15 when we romped to the Championship title winning the division with about 6 games to spare. In European competition, prior to relegation, there have been memorable nights taking on Spurs and Liverpool in the Europa League.

Snapped at my beloved Tynecastle - Come on the Hearts !

As was stated in one of the very first posts in this blog it has been a lifetime ambition to do the Road to Wembley. After Graeme’s passing there was no longer a three line whip for all of the Merky Gang to attend all of the Hearts home games. So in October 2011 I embarked on the Scottish equivalent of the ‘road’ and set foot out on ‘The Road to Hampden from Penicuik’. Here in Scotland we have the Scottish Junior Cup as well as the Scottish FA Cup. The term ‘junior’ does not mean juvenile – it refers to a second tier of adult football. I don’t pretend to understand the relationship between the Junior FA and the Scottish FA but I do know that until about 10 years ago they were mutually exclusive. These days there is some collaborative stuff going on and in 2007 it was agreed that the winners of the Scottish Junior FA Cup were to ‘qualify’ to play in the Scottish FA Cup the following season. So I embarked on a two year project to firstly follow the Junior Cup from my home town in Penicuik. Then in the season 2012-13 follow the winners of the Junior Cup, and their subsequent conquerors, to Hampden in June 2013. I did this and I blogged it. See http://hampdenfrompenicuik.blogspot.co.uk/ As you will see I attended the following ties:

Scottish Junior FA Cup Season 2011-12

Rd 1      Penicuik 1 Glenrothes 1

Replay  Glenrothes 0 Penicuik 3

Rd 2      Glasgow Perthshire 0 Penicuik 0

Replay   Penicuik 4 Glasgow Perthshire 1

Rd 3      Auchinleck Talbot 6 Penicuik 0

Rd 4      Musselburgh 1 Auuchinleck Talbot 3

Rd 5      Auchinleck Talbot 5 St Rochs 0

QF        Auchinleck Talbot 2 Boness 0

SF         Auchinleck Talbot 0 Bonnyrigg Rose 0 (Auhinleck win 6-5 on penalties)

Final     Shotts Bon Accord 2 Auchinleck Talbot 1 (played at Livingston FC)

Scottish FA Cup 2012-13

Rd 1      Shotts Bon Accord 1 Edinburgh City 1

Replay  Edinburgh City 4 Shotts Bon Accord 1

Rd 2     Montrose 1 Edinburgh City 3

Rd 3      Edinburgh City 0 Queen of the South 2

Rd 4     Kilmarnock 2 Queen of the South 1

Rd 5     Kilmarnock 2 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 0

Rd 6     Kilmarnock 2 Hibernian 4

SF        Hibernian 4 Falkirk 3 (aet at Hampden)

Final     Hibernian 0 Celtic 3 (at Hampden)

If you click on the blog link you might be a bit disappointed. Some great pics in there and I did attend all 19 games. However you will note some minimalist reporting. In brief I was very very busy at work and did not have the time to do the project justice. I am now all but retired and I do have the time and the energy to report in full on every match on the Road to Wembley from Scotland in 2016-17 and I can’t wait to get started.

This post concludes my scene setting / rationale for the blog. I am hoping that readers will have got a flavour of my obsession for Hearts, football in general and the Cup competitions in particular. I hope too that readers will appreciate the reasons behind dedicating the book / blog to three great men: my late Dad, the late great Graeme ‘The Inspector’ Ogilvie and my son Brian.

The blog now moves in to ‘real time’. Reminiscing is over and the blog will now be concerned with the Road to Wembley from Scotland in 2016-17. This coming Friday (the 8^th July) the draw for the Extra Preliminary Round will be made. After the draw is released I will be heading for the tie drawn nearest to the Scottish border on Saturday August 6^th. It could be Penrith, it could be Alnwick Town – if both of these teams are drawn away it could be Ashington or Morpeth. One thing for sure is that it is going to be fun. Keep reading folks.

Get Smaller on !

If you are reading this on a post by post basis you will know that I was about to take you on a virtual journey from Boston in 2008 back to Edinburgh. I will indeed go there in the next post. However, this blog is sort of taking on a life of it’s own at the moment and I now have a few loose ends to deal with regarding my time in Boston before I go up the A1.

In the last blog I referenced a memorable FA Cup tie between Kings Lynn and Boston Town September 1995. Andy Sandall the Boston Town Programme Editor from that era, now resident in the United States, has been in touch and reminded me that when Kings Lynn went ahead some of their fans came screaming onto the pitch and taunted the Boston Town custodian Jamie Morgan. He apparently admitted at half time that he was incredibly tempted to go down as if one of them had hit him (Andy notes that they did brush against him as they celebrated) and try to get the game abandoned but couldn't bring himself to do it as that wasn't the culture at the club or in that dressing room. Exciting times as always in the early rounds of the FA Cup. In this notorious match where 2 Boston Town players were sent off in the first 25 minutes Boston Town lost 5-1 and the consolation goal for Town was scored by Carl Smaller.

I sent Andy the pic above via facebook and he tagged a load of the Town players that he is still in touch with. As is the way with these things some of the ex players tagged joined a discussion and a few more ‘liked’ various contributions. The name of Carl Smaller popped up in despatches and this reminded me that in the mid nineties Carl had an amazing scoring spree for Boston Town. From memory I think he may have scored 40 goals in one season and as I attended a lot of Boston Town games at that time I was a big admirer. In the summer of 1996 Boston United signed him from Town and I fully expected him to score a hatful of goals for United who were playing at a much higher level. However, Carl was used sparingly as a sub and this must have been frustrating for him – as it was for me in the stands as I felt I knew he could get the goals United needed. At this time, (season 96-97) as previously reported, I was in a gang of  about 10 Boston College staff colleagues who every fortnight went out for the full Saturday afternoon York Street experience - the first part of which was to have a refreshment or two in the Social Club before the match. In most cases the guys were better prepared for a laugh and a carry on rather than engaging with the Boston United’s failed Unibond League campaign. My plaintiff cry every other Saturday during this season when Boston needed a goal was ‘Get Smaller On’ as he sat on the bench and his team mates struggled. Increasingly my pals got more and more amused by this. One Saturday in the later part of the season the late Johnny Hale, a stalwart in our group, watched Boston United kick off at 3.00 pm, play two passes before he mockingly bellowed from the stands “Get Smaller On” …. brilliant.

Here’s hoping that Carl and others from the Lincolnshire non league scene in the 1990s will follow me via this blog on the Road to Wembley from Scotland in 2016-17. Here’s hoping also that the ‘road’ will take me to Lincolnshire in the qualifying rounds in September and October. The draw for the Extra Preliminary round for the FA Cup is now only six days away. I will soon know where the road will start.

Tomorrow in the blog post I will be taking the virtual road back to Scotland in 2008 to complete this scene setting phase of this blog / book. Look out for Hearts in the Scottish Cup and also ‘The Road to Hampden from Penicuik’.

More memories of the FA Cup 1991-2008 in Lincolnshire and beyond

Before leaving Boston and returning to Edinburgh on this scene setting journey explaining my fascination with the FA Cup I feel I must widen the net beyond Boston United. Whilst the York Street experience was the main course during our stay in Boston, there were a few tasty side dishes to savour. My son Brian and I would go to the football every Saturday. With Boston United obviously only playing at home on alternate Saturdays this provided opportunities to see some of the other teams in the area play and the FA Cup was always uppermost in our thoughts in planning our fixture list. Between the years 1992 and 2006 we scoured the surrounding area for FA Cup ties if the Pilgrims were away from home. We went to FA Cup qualifying round matches in Spalding, Holbeach, Wisbech, Bourne, Stamford. Lincoln Moorlands, Lincoln United, Grantham, Retford, Worksop, Fakenham, Kings Lynn and Gainsborough. Additionally we saw some cracking later round ties including games at Nottingham Forest, Notts County, Peterborough, Mansfield, Lincoln City and Newcastle United. We were also fortunate enough to see the famous semi final tie in 1997 at Old Trafford when Chesterfield and a Middlesbrough team featuring Juninho, Emerson and Ravanelli drew 3-3. 

               

                       

With Boston United typically exempt until the fourth qualifying round then as the early qualifying rounds were drawn there was always one team that Brian and I would look out for and that was Boston Town. Boston Town are Boston’s second team and play in the United Counties League (UCL) three tiers below the league that Boston United play in. During our time in Boston it was ever thus. Boston United typically attract about 1000 punters to their matches. Town typically attract about 100 spectators to their league games. It was always great to see them play. It was also cheap and you could get a pint at half time but the atmosphere was less intense and obviously the standard of football was not as good. The first time I went to see Boston Town was on Tuesday the 22^nd October 1991 under the floodlights at their Tattershall Road ground.  The attendance was 47 – I know this because I counted them. The opposition for this UCL fixture was Stewarts and Lloyds of Corby then known as Hamlet S & L. 

I had been down in Boston for about a week and I was getting used to hearing Bostonian accents – I was even practising my ‘all right mate’ greeting. So, I was surprised to hear the S & L players cajoling each other and advising each other using Scots accents. I thought I was having some sort of Stirling University flashback, a sort of aural hallucination. The explanation became clear to me a few years later. Corby residents are typically second or third generation Scots whose forefathers came down from Glasgow in the fifties to find work in the town. Many Corby residents have never been to Scotland but speak with Scots accents. In researching this post I looked out the programme from this match and it was of interest to see Boston United legend Chris Cook turning out for Town. He was to return to York Street and play for United for a couple more seasons for an Indian Summer and confirm his legendary status. It was also interesting to be reminded that the programme editor was my good friend Andy Sandall. Andy was one of the good guys in local non league football in the early nineties and once notoriously arranged for the Boston College staff team to take on a Boston Town XI on the hallowed Tattershall Road pitch. I still have the bruises. Andy later, in the mid nineties, invited me to write a ‘Scottish Slant’ column for the match programme. Given that only 100 people watched their games, not everyone bought a programme and that those who did buy probably did not read the whole publication, I had a very small audience. A bit like writing this blog really. However, despite all this one of my warmest feelings at a football match was having a pint in the Social Club at Town’s Tattershall Road ground before a match and noticing a guy reading the page of the programme where my article was housed and a big grin coming over his face as he read one of my comedy-gold football soundbytes.

Brian and I occasionally followed Boston Town away in the FA Cup also and in September 1995 we travelled to see if Town David could topple the Goliath that was Kings Lynn FC of the Beazer Homes League. 

Kings Lynn got good crowds and 1157 turned up to see what promised to be an enthralling tie. The reason that this tie was more memorable than others we attended was that Town had two men sent off in the first 25 minutes of the match and it is enough of a disadvantage trying to take on a team from a couple of divisions higher without giving them a 2 player start. Kings Lynn won 5-1. One of the most fascinating features of the FA Cup is the David and Goliath struggle. I must have watched over 100 FA Cup ties in my 17 years in Boston and saw many such David v Goliath tussles. Other than seeing Boston United fall to a series of lower league teams in the early nineties I never did see a genuinely tiny David fell the mythical giant. Perhaps that particular treat awaits me on the Road to Wembley from Scotland 2016-17.

The Donkin family returned to Midlothian in 2008 and a chance for me to watch Hearts every week and also a chance to find out more about the romance of the Scottish FA Cup.

Boston United and the magic of the FA Cup 1991-2008

So the now 5 strong Donkin family arrive in Boston in October 1991. My wife Anne and I we now have a young family – my wonderful son Brian and two beautiful daughters Joanna and Morag. Given my twin footballing fascinations of the plight of the football underdog and also the FA Cup early rounds then Boston suited me just fine. I was quickly to develop an affection for Boston United who when we arrived were plying their trade in the Nationwide Conference. I was taken aback by the size of the crowds and also the standard of football. As ‘The Pilgrims’ were a non league team I imagined they would be playing a similar standard to teams like Vale of Leithen and Spartans who I had watched on days off from Hearts in the early rounds of the Scottish Cup. The first game I attended at Boston United’s York Street ground was to change my perceptions. On the 19^th October 1991 Boston United entertained Wycombe Wanderers in front of almost 2000 fans. With Martin O’Neil in the away dug out and a thrilling 2-2 draw being played out on the pitch I was hooked immediately. I was in the habit of watching football every Saturday during the football season and having seen the fare on offer at York Street I thought ‘that will do me nicely’.

Over the next 15 years my son Brian and I were to attend 95% of the home games played at York Street. The team experienced some ups and downs in this period and famously appointed Steve Evans (until recently the manager of Leeds United) in 1998. He managed Boston United to promotion from the Southern Football League to the Football Conference in 2000 and subsequently to the Football League in 2002. Both promotions have since been overshadowed by revelations of off-the-field cheating. Evans was suspended by Boston as manager on 4 July 2002 after a much-publicised Football Association (The FA) investigation into "contract irregularities". He later resigned as manager of the club in September 2002, after still being suspended by the club. He was found guilty by The FA in December 2002 of impeding an FA inquiry into contract irregularities. Evans was also suspended from the game for 20 months in January 2003 for involvement of the affairs of Boston, in which players' contracts lodged with the FA contained false salary details. Evans was further accused of impeding the inquiry and fined £8,000. Evans lodged an appeal against charges in May 2003, but The FA rejected his appeal later that month and the punishment stood. In my day-job at Boston College at the time I dealt with Steve in a professional capacity when helping to manage the ‘Football for Life’ scheme – a partnership arrangement between the College and the Football Club. I found him to be a thoroughly objectionable character who, in my opinion, treated our students / his youth players with disdain. In short, I think Steve Evans is a bad man !

Steve Evans on the touchline in typical pose

Steve Evans leaving court and not keen to speak to the press. Club Secretary John Blackwell walks ahead

 Despite the shadow cast over Uniteds’ achievements in this era Brian and I, and many others that we went to the matches with, had some very enjoyable Saturday afternoons at York Street. For a while the group of us from the staff of Boston College who went to the games on a Saturday numbered about 10. These were good times watching football. The routine would be a couple of beers before the match in the BUFC Social Club, watch the match, then retire to the Social Club for a couple more beers and watch the full time scores and reports come through. On the pitch The Pilgrims played some great stuff and it was a real privilege to see local legend Chris Cook (the only man to score for Boston United at Wembley – FA Trophy Final 1985 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1nIbMuF3sg ) in the twilight of his career and also everyone’s favourite player the man who between 1992 and 2004 played over 500 games in goal for Boston United the one and only Paul ‘Baldy’ Bastock. Incredibly Bastock is still playing – for Stamford Town at the age of 46. It would be a wonderful diversion if the Road to Wembley took me to Stamford in this coming season.

Chris Cook - Legend and Old War Horse

Baldy Bastock - Top Man and Great Keeper

   So much fun and so many laughs watching Boston United in that era. One incident sticks in my memory. Once a season the Red Cross would have a ‘blanket collection’ at half time to raise funds. On the occasion in question we had indulged in the pre match libations and about ten of us were in the main stand feeling pretty merry. At half time we did the decent thing and went down from our seats to the front of the stand and threw some change onto the blanket being held at all corners by four members of the Red Cross. One of our group, Kris Dowse, had probably overdone the pre match drinking and was in outrageous mode. Ten minutes into the second half an opposition player suffered a serious injury and could not continue. The same four Red Cross guys ran on with a stretcher and he was put on it. As the stretcher with the prostrate, distraught player was being carried round in front of us in the stand, Kris rushed out of his seat down the steps to the front and then threw an assortment of change over the guy on the stretcher as if the blanket collection was getting a re-run. A cry of ‘there you go mate’ from Kris and a response of ‘what the fuck’ from the player. Ridiculous !

The highlight of each season in Boston for me and my son was watching Boston United’s FA Cup run. We made it our goal to go to every Boston United FA Cup tie home and away and we indeed managed this for our first twelve years in Boston. There was always an excitement when the draw was made, wondering would it be an easy tie would it involve travel. Over the next twelve years the road to Wembley from Boston took us to places like Braintree, Heybridge, Maldon, Bedworth, Chester, Knypersely Ilkeston, Congelton, Burton and Northampton. Additionally some weird and wonderful teams visited York Street to play in this most famous of all cup competitions. Our Boston based FA Cup campaign got off to a relatively slow start as Boston went out early in the cup in each of our first four seasons in Lincolnshire. Minnows Aveley, Canvey Island and Wisbech all left York Street still in the cup with the home team weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth with their FA Cup dreams in tatters for another year. Then in season 1996-97 our prayers were answered when the Pilgrims went on a cup run that saw them win 5 matches score 25 goals and eventually lose to Football League side Chester in North Wales. A match that provided a great day out for me, my laddie and a whole group of us from Boston College. I haven’t checked the records but I think it will be many years since a team that won the FA Cup actually scored 25 goals during their campaign. The following season Boston won away in Kynpersley before losing in round 1 to Ilkeston. By this time I was writing occasional match reports for Ken Fox’s Boston United web site and for the Ilkeston match I had to sadly report racist abuse being hurled at Boston players by Ilkeston ‘fans’ – not nice. I was surprised to see that my report is still on line and can be accessed via  http://www.bufc.drfox.org.uk/N151197.html  

Me and Brian with the FA Cup at the Boston United Social Club 

 The next season Boston lost a horrible match and a massive upset was caused when a team from way down the football pyramid took the scalp of (in non league terms) the mighty Pilgrims. In October 1998 the Bostonians travelled to Congleton in Cheshire in the FA Cup to take on the local team. Boston dominated the first half but could not get the ball in the net. Two minutes into the second half the referee awarded a highly dodgy penalty to the home team and the kicker sent Bastock the wrong way to give Congleton a highly undeserved lead. Boston huffed and puffed without joy and then with ten minutes to go Caretaker Manager Chris Cook threw on the teenage substitute and Boston College student Leigh Taylor. Two minutes to go and Leigh swivelled on the edge of the box and struck a fine fierce shot that hit the underside of the bar. Standing right behind the goal, Brian and I watched in disbelief as the ball bounced down 6 inches in front of the line and then bounced out. Final score Congleton 1 Boston United 0 and Boston out of the cup in circumstances almost as humiliating as England’s loss to Iceland two nights ago. I have often reflected that if Leigh Taylor’s wonderful half-volley had hit the bar half an inch lower it would have bounced down over the line and Boston would have drawn 1-1, taken Congleton back to York Street and thrashed them and Caretaker Manager and Club Legend Chris Cook would almost certainly have been given the job on a permanent basis. Instead Chris was relieved of his temporary duties the following week and the club appointed Steve Evans and the rest is history!

More FA Cup action was enjoyed in the seasons that followed. Visits to Northampton and Macclesfield and home ties against Brigg and Hartlepool were on the agenda for Brian and I - following Boston United in the Cup. My love affair with the FA Cup had been consummated. I hope to prove my lifetime devotion to the greatest cup competition in football between August 2016 and May 2017. Really looking forward to it. 

Late eighties in Edinburgh - Despair at Dens but great times on the terracing

As a football fanatic and a Hearts fan I always think of the years between 1986 and 1991 as the halcyon days. Such great times, such great friendships forged through following Hearts and such exciting times on the pitch.

After a slow start to season 1985-86 Hearts started a long unbeaten run on the 5^th October with an inauspicious 1-1 draw at Tynecastle against Dundee. The run was to last over 30 games and ultimately end in heartbreak and despair missing out on the league title and the Scottish Cup on successive Saturdays in May. In the autumn months I was going to the Hearts games with a variety of people: relatives, workmates, friends and neighbours and by now I was in the habit of never missing a match at Tynecastle. One of the neighbours was Davie Greig, who we had just bought our house from, and after Hearts had beaten Rangers in the Scottish Cup in a 3-2 thriller in January he suggested that I should go to the next round with him and his mates. The 4^th round tie against Hamilton away was postponed due to bad weather and went ahead on a midweek night on the 3^rd March. Davie and I met with his brother Richard, Mike Mellis and Graeme Ogilvie at a pub in the Chesser area of Edinburgh at 5.00 pm. The first time I met these guys – all became good friends and the late Graeme Ogilvie was to become a great pal and is sadly missed by all who knew him. Given my habits while at Uni (see earlier posts) and his job as a policeman we were a strange combination but Graeme was no ordinary policeman. He had the ability to know intuitively what was right and wrong immediately, a great sympathy / empathy for his fellow man and a great sense of fair play – fantastic personality traits for a copper. I think it is fair to say that as well as being a mate I was also in awe of this colossus of a man.

On the night of the 3^rd March 1986 we had 5 pints between 5.00pm and 6.30pm and I was not used to this rate of consumption and was a bit worse for wear even before we got in the car to go to Hamilton. I remember a couple of things about the conversations in the pub. Early on in the dialogue Davie announced that he only hated three types of people; the English, Hibs supporters and Catholics. I told him that I was brought up a catholic, was English and briefly favoured Hibs following the family move up from England. Raucous laughter at the banality of Davie’s pronouncement ensued. The first of many times that laughter rang through the air when the boys were bevvying. The other snippet I remember is that Richard said I would get to know them all a lot better when the kissing and cuddling starts following a Hearts goal. I thought he was joking but as I found out a couple of hours later he was not. I was to enjoy many many man hugs with these guys over the years that followed. Hearts won the match 2-1 with Gary McKay and (inevitably) John Robertson on target. Lots of drink on an empty stomach had resulted in me getting double vision. To bring the game into focus I watched the first half with my left hand over my left eye. This gesture was to be mimicked by my new pals every time the fifth round of drinks was ordered prior to the games that followed. 

That was it. The bond was set. We never missed a game for the rest of that season – home and away. Hearts unbeaten run continued until Hearts lost 2-0 at Dundee on the final day of the league season. Needing only a draw to win the title Hearts were broken by Dundee journeyman Albert Kidd who came on as a second half substitute to score twice in the last 7 minutes. I was distraught but the thing that upset me most is that having scored Kidd celebrated as if he had just scored the winning goal in the cup final. No team outwith the Old Firm has come as near as that to winning the title since. We were distraught. As we left the ground and passed the grassy hill outside the stadium we passed by hundreds of maroon clad fans some weeping, some comforting each other and others just looking blankly into the middle distance with vacant looks on their faces. Had I been transported to this scene without prior notice I would have assumed that there had been some sort of nuclear bomb explosion in the Dens Park area of Dundee. In the car going back to Edinburgh no-one spoke until we reached the Forth Road Bridge. 

Albert Kidd celebrates in sickening fashion

Too much too take

Dens Park 1986 - being awake during a nightmare

Too much to bear

The following Saturday Hearts lost 3-0 to Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup Final and we all went out and got absolutely immortal afterwards. By 11.00 pm the gloom had turned to glee as we started to reflect on the most amazing season in Hearts recent history. It was a great night. ‘Hearts Hearts Glorious Hearts’ rang out in the night air in Gorgie.

During the summer of 1986 Rangers appointed Graeme Souness as player manager of Rangers, Celtic strengthened in response and the face of Scottish football was changed back to the old routine. No provincial team has got as close to the league title since. However we had wonderful times watching Hearts in the five seasons that followed the tumultuous 1985-86 season. Other than a second place finish in season 1987-88 Hearts were placed in mid table but this return to mediocrity did not dampen our enthusiasm as we followed Hearts avidly and the pre match drink flowed like torrents tumbling down Niagra Falls. Great times.

In the summer of 1991 I applied for a job in Boston Lincolnshire and I was successful. My love affair with the FA Cup was about to be re-ignited. 

1979 to 1985 George Best at Hibs and Big Frank Liddell at Hearts !

Season 1979-80 was a great season for me personally. Football dominated my thoughts, morning nooon and night. Like the previous season my Dad and I, in most cases, were going to Hibs home games one week and Hearts home games the next. This was the last season that this was to happen as our differing new allegiances in Scottish football took root. For some time my Dad had been a big Hibs fan and he had started to feel a wee bit of the animosity towards Hearts that is almost obligatory amongst the Hibs following. Similarly I was now fully committed to supporting the Gorgie Boys and was beginning to feel increasingly uncomfortable about attending matches at Easter Road and cheering on Hibs. Almost 40 years later I must be one of only a handful of season ticket holders at Tynecastle who has a soft spot for out great rivals from across the city.

One of the attractions of embarking on the Road to Wembley from Scotland is to take myself (mostly) out of the tribal nature of Scottish football for a season. Most Saturday mornings I play golf with Les Cranston a great pal of mine, a kind and reasonable man with a sympathetic nature -  and a big Hibby. Recently I told him that I bear Hibs no ill will and that when the chant goes up at Tynie ‘stand up if you hate Hibees’ I can be spotted as the one guy in the Gorgie Road stand sitting down. He told me that when the same chant goes up at the other end of the ground with ‘Hibees’ deleted and ‘Jambos’ inserted that he is the one leading the singing!  A timely reminder of the deep held and heartfelt divisions between the two clubs. So season 1979-80 was the season after which me and my Dad went separate ways on a Saturday.

Possibly a contributory factor to this ‘amicabale split’ was that Hibs had a totally wretched season in 1979-80 and finished bottom of the league winning only 6 games, although George Best signing for Hibs and playing in a number of matches brightened up things for everyone (see pic below). In the Scottish Cup Hibs hobbled into the semi final where they were walloped 5-0 by Celtic. 

Meanwhile over at Tynecastle Hearts, following their relegation the previous season, were in the process of wining the Division One Championship to secure promotion back to the Premier Division at the first attempt. The final game of the season saw them thrillingly snatch the title from league leaders Airdrie by defeating them 1-0 at Tynecastle with a powerfully headed goal in the last couple of minutes from Frank Liddell. I was delirious with happiness – an almost religious experience. When Frank Liddell led the team out arms aloft (see pic below) for a lap of honour shortly after the final whistle I wept with joy. Surely this was what football was all about. My Dad applauded in a very matter of fact way and it was clear from this point on he was Hibs property and my heart belonged to Hearts. From this point on when we met up to go to the football it was to see various minor Scottish teams on the Road to Hampden.

From my earliest memory (see the South Bank v Shldon post early in this blog) my Dad had been fascinated by the plight of the minnow in the cup competitions. This fascination has been transmitted through the genes to me. From 1979 to 1985 my old man and I saw some great early round David and Goliath Scottish Cup ties together – taking a break now and then from the Hibs and Hearts devotion. The games between Stenhousmuir and Spartans January 1981, Vale of Leithen and Stranraer February 1982, East Stirling and Fraseburgh January 1984 spring to mind. However, one Scottish Cup game in this era sticks in the memory. On the 8^th December 1984 me, my wife Anne, my Mam and my Dad went up to Stirling for a bit of a day out – a pub lunch followed by some Christmas shopping for the women and an afternoon at the football for the men. All good gender stereo-typical behaviour in the 1980s. The men witnessed Stirling Albion 20 Selkirk 0. I believe this is still a record score for the Scottish Cup in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. When we were walking out the ground and making our way back to the centre of Stirling three old guys all donning the traditional flat cap were walking in front of us. It was clear that the middle of the three was a man who was difficult to impress and liked a good moan. The old guy on his left pleaded ‘come on Tam even you must be happy with that’ and the guy on his right noted ‘Tam, £1 to get in and 20 goals – that’s 5p a goal’. Tam was unimpressed and after a couple more cock-a-hoop and euphoric rejoinders from his pals he finally spoke: “Christ ! It should have been 40 !” . 

The following season I was to attend a Scottish Cup tie between Hamilton Accies and Hearts at Douglas Park. That night was the first time I met Graeme Ogilvie and great times were ahead watching football with Graeme, Davie Greig, Richard Greig and Mike Mellis.