BOSTON UNITED (Jakemans Community Stadium)

FA CUP 4th QUALIFYING ROUND, BOSTON UNITED 1-1 STRATFORD TOWN, ATTENDANCE: 1,627

This afternoon I headed cross country to Lincolnshire to complete my trilogy of the three brand new grounds in the National League North that I needed at the start of the season (Gloucester City and York City were the others).

Boston moved into their new stadium at the end of 2020 after leaving York Street after 77 years. The ground move had been mooted since 2006, when Boston were a football league club, but it finally came to fruition last year.

The new ground is part of a redevelopment of an area on the outskirts of Boston in Wyberton. As well as the ground, there is a new housing estate and the ubiquitous retail outlets.

The ground is easy to find if you are driving, as it is off the main A16 road. We parked on a residential street about a 10 minute walk away. However, if you are walking it from the town centre then you are looking at about a 40 minute stroll.

The ground is currently three sided, a main seated stand and two sides of terracing. The fourth side behind the goal will be developed in the future.

The Pilgrims played their first game at the new Stadium on 5 December 2020, a 2-0 loss to Chorley in the National League North. Due to Covid fans were not permitted to attend until the start of the current 2021-22 season.

Today I was attracted by the magic of the cup. Both teams were playing for the chance of getting into the first round proper, and all of the possibilities that entails, but for the visitors Stratford Town the occasion was more special as this was the furthest they had ever gone in the FA Cup in their 80 year history.

Boston will be wondering how this one got away. After dominating the opening proceedings, they eventually took the lead courtesy of a Fraser Preston free-kick after 22 minutes. Preston thought he had bagged a second five minutes later, but an assistant referee's flag came to the visitors rescue.

This let off galvanised Stratford and on 32 minutes they were level when Jaanai Gordon headed home from a corner kick.

Stratford had a spell of pressure before half time as Boston were clearly stunned by the disallowed goal and equaliser, but it was all square at the break.

Boston began the second half as they began the first, putting the Stratford under pressure but in truth they failed to trouble Liam O'Brien in The Bards goal. On 75 minutes there was a bit of melee in the Stratford penalty area which resulted in a red card for Jake Wright Jr and with that both teams seemed happy to settle for a replay.

Result!

EDIT: Stratford Town won the replay 3-2 and were rewarded with a home tie with Shrewsbury Town, which will be shown live on television. A very lucrative reward for their efforts, which is why the FA Cup is still important to the majority of clubs.

VALE OF LUNE RUFC (Powderhouse Lane)

WESTMORLAND COUNTY FA SENIOR CUP FINAL, MILNTHORPE CORINTHIANS 6-1 MARSH UNITED, ATTENDANCE: 416

This afternoon I made the pilgrimage to Lancaster for an interesting game at an interesting venue. I certainly wasn't the only groundhopper with the same opinion and there were plenty of familiar faces in amongst the bumper crowd.

The Westmorland FA Senior Cup Final was taking place at Powderhouse Lane, the home of Vale of Lune rugby union club. The Lune is the river than runs through the city and the rugby club is near the border of Lancaster and Morecambe. A chance to watch football at a rugby ground? Yes please!

All good but why is the Westmorland Cup Final being held in another county? Well simply it's because the competition had taken longer to reach its conclusion, due to the enforced Covid break, the regular venue for the showpiece final, Kendal Town, was unavailable. Vale of Lune agreed to host so this is probably a one-off occasion. This decision to go beyond the county line was not without controversy but the the organisation more than justified it. 

The centrepiece of the ground is the main stand, which is an unusual looking structure on the halfway line. There is terracing either side of the stand but the rest of ground is flat standing. There is a raised platform outside the clubhouse behind the goal which, on a baking hot day, was very busy today.

The two finalists compete in different leagues. Milnthorpe Corinthians are members of  the West Lancashire League whilst Marsh United are members of the North Lancashire and District League.

There was an obvious gulf in class between the sides as Milnthorpe comprehensively dispatched Marsh United.

It was a tight opening 20 minutes but once Charlie Morton headed home from a corner to open it was game over. Within five minutes of that opener it was 3-0 to Milnthorpe as Steve Yawson scored a quick brace. A free kick was deflected into his own goal by Jamie Woodruff just before half time, which could have made things interesting, but Milnthorpe's dominance continued in the second half as Morton scored his second and Yawson completed his hat-trick. Aaron Hoyle made in 6-1 with a penalty late on to ensure Corinthians retained the trophy for another year.

You can watch match highlights by clicking here

...and with that another Covid-19 interrupted season ends for me. It has been good to get out and about these last few weeks and watch football at levels which I would not normally consider. That will change going forward. I will return in a few weeks when season 2021/22 is scheduled to kick off competitively in early July. Hopefully that remains so. Until then, stay safe and look after each other.

LEEDS CITY (Adel War Memorial Ground)

YORKSHIRE AMATEUR LEAGUE SUPREME DIVISION, LEEDS CITY 1-8 TOLLER FC, ATTENDANCE: 12 (h/c)

I should have been on a flight to St Petersburg today but instead found myself heading to the outskirts of Leeds. There were few games to choose from this evening but it was the name Leeds City that proved the big draw.

The name of Leeds City is a famous name from the past, the club being the forerunner to the current Leeds United. Founded in 1904, Leeds City were the first professional club in the city and were elected to the Football League in 1905. They remained in Division Two until they were expelled from the League in 1919 due to financial irregularities. The club were paying players during the war, which was prohibited, as the club won wartime honours under the great Herbert Chapman. The club refused to co-operate in the investigation by not handing over any financial records so the Football League expelled them and replaced them with Port Vale (who took over their remaining fixtures as well as their results up to that point).

This Leeds City FC was formed in 2006 as a result of a merger between Abbey Grange Old Boys FC, Adel FC and Leeds City Vixens. These clubs were joined at the same time by two teams from Horsforth St Margaret's FC. Their home ground is the Adel War Memorial Ground and the football pitch is part of a larger complex which hosts cricket, tennis and hockey (all of which were being utilised this evening). The pitch is railed on three sides and there is no furniture to speak of, but as it was a pleasant evening that didn't really matter.

The match was an end of season dead rubber but based on the respective league positions the result turned out to be a bit of a surprise. It was a dominate performance from the visitors as they rattled in eight goals and, it if wasn't for some wayward finishing, it probably could have been more. It never helped the homesters that Toller's first goal came after just 20 seconds. The star of the night was Hassan Khan who bagged himself a hat-trick. The other Toller goals were scored by Mohammed Hassan, Samuel Jordan, Andrew McHugh, Matthew Schofield and Kyle Trenerry. Ethan Arya scored Leeds' consolation goal.

There were a couple of familiar groundhopping faces in the crowd, one who is renowned for making very bad puns. As you can imagine he was in his element with Toller-eight!

Kyle Trenerry fires home Toller's eighth, and final, goal of the evening

MEXBOROUGH SPORTS CLUB (Hampden Road)

MONTAGU HOSPITAL CHARITY CUP FINAL 2021, JOKER FC 1-2 SWINTON ATHLETIC, ATTENDANCE: 511

On a roasting hot Bank Holiday Monday, I once again headed to Yorkshire for my football fix.

The Montagu Cup is an invitational competition for teams in and around the Mexborough area. It was created 124 years ago to raise funds for the local Montagu cottage hospital. The first winners in 1897 were Ecclesfield.

The final is traditionally held on Easter Monday but like most things in these Covid times, the competition has been delayed a few weeks.

Today's final was between Joker FC and Swinton Athletic. Swinton, of the the Sheffield and Hallamshire League, are one of the most successful teams in the history of this competition and hold the record of 7 wins, jointly, with Wombell Main and Mexborough Main. A win today would see them defend their title, after victory in 2020, and also claim the record outright.

Joker FC, who play in the Rotherham & District Sunday League Premier Division, were looking to win the trophy for the second time in three years, after beating Wombwell Main 6-0 back in 2019. It promised to be a decent encounter.

The game, as is traditional, took place at Hampden Road in Mexborough. There have been three football clubs to originate from Mexborough, the last of which, Mexborough Town, folded in 1993. The ground is shared with the cricket club and has a large seated stand on one side. In recent years Swinton Athletic have been using it as their home ground as it meets ground grading criteria. The other sides of the ground are made up of large banks of terracing.

I was speaking to other groundhoppers at the game and they were telling me that Swinton may be going back to their traditional home next season so the ground could be laying dormant next season, which would be such a shame for a superb set up.

Clearly I wasn't the only one anticipating a good game today and there was a tremendous 500+ crowd in attendance. The game was a tight affair. Joker were the marginally better team in the first half but their play in the final third let them down.

As the game wore on Swinton began to look dangerous and once they took the lead through a Matt Thornton header (60) there was likely to be only one winner. Two minutes later Thornton doubled Swinton's advantage with a superb chip and finish over the advancing goalkeeper before Joker got a consolation goal through Joseph Austin with virtually the last kick of the match.

Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUYcj-WHCX8

There is a blue plaque on the clubhouse wall at Mexborough

paying tribute to Eric Brook, who was Manchester City's record

goalscorer until 2017, when he was overtaken by Sergio Aguero.