The decline of Lincolnshire football

[leicester pilgrim]

Interesting article here about the decline of football in Lincolnshire...

http://www.insidefutbol.com/2011/05/29/scunthorpe-lincoln-grimsby-and-boston-woes-lead-to-lincolnshire-football-decline/42819/

Not sure I agree with some of the points being made though, particularly in respect of Boston United.

This, coupled with the failure of Boston to secure promotion from the Conference North...

In my book last season wasn't a failure We reached the play-offs in our first season back at that level. And we only lost on penalties. Surely the season overall was a success?

Three of the four are guilty of making questionable management choices, such as Neil Woods at Grimsby Town, Steve Sutton and Peter Jackson at Lincoln and a succession of failed appointments at Boston since Steve Evans left the club.

What constitutes a succession of failed managers? Tommy Taylor was our first manager after Steve Evans and under-achieved considerably. But since then, can you really say we've had any failed appointments? And the wording of the article somehow implies Steve Evans' appointment was successful?

And all four are arguably guilty of over using the loan market and signing free agents, journeymen and other clubs' fringe players.

Examples, please? Most of our squad over the past couple of seasons have been aged early 20s and certainly not journeymen. And surely signing free agents, loan players and other clubs' fringer players is part and parcel of non-league football?


Views?

[wayne, york pilgrim]

dispite last season being very entertaining it was not successful. we acheived nothing on the pitch. we are still in the con north. our rightful place is the con prem. from being relegated from league two we should have been in the con prem. the fact that we are not in that league is because failings off the pitch. thank newton we are back on track there but on the pitch we are not where we should be. we were demoted not relegated down the pyramid. a successful season would have seen us back in the con prem. until we are back in the prem we will be seen as underacheivers.

[goodyntu]

Last year was succesful, I would have been happy with just mid table at least, and then pushing for the play offs this forthcoming season. I'm sure many would agree!

[Pilgrim86]

we acheived nothing on the pitch

Oh. My. God. Sounds like you need to get yoruself a Barcelona season ticket!

[Burton Pilgrim]

I disagree with the first line of this article!  Since when was Lincolnshire a hotbed for football???
You could describe Merseyside or Manchester as a hotbed, the West Midlands and East Midlands at various times, but Lincolnshire?  Has it ever even had a team in the top division?  Has there ever been more than the odd Lincolnshire player at the top level?
No question that the Lincs teams are having a bad time at the moment.  For me, the main factors are the economic climate, which hits low-wage rural areas particularly hard, and the fact that there isn't a huge pool of footballing talent within easy reach. 
Even the lowest non-league teams around Manchester or London have a huge pool of players to choose from - if you look at the number of people living (and therefore players available) within 1 hours travelling time of most Lincs clubs, it's pretty small.  This will always be a problem for Boston and other clubs in Lincs and Norfolk.
You only have to look at the wide geographical spread of supporters on the patter to see that a lot of people leave the area to pursue their career.  So there's not too much to tempt a part time player to move to the area - if a player has a good job in a city, I'm afraid Boston can't really offer anything to compete in terms of wages or prospects.
Unless something remarkable happens to the local economy, we will almost inevitably have to rely on well-off individuals putting money into the club to compete at Conference level, and will need management with connections to 'hotbeds' such as Notts or Yorks to bring players from those areas to the club.

[lonegunman]

we acheived nothing on the pitch

Oh. My. God. Sounds like you need to get yoruself a Barcelona season ticket!

I'll tell what we achieved on the pitch.
When DN came we were bust. Since then he and others have put the club back on track. First year was poor i agree but we got through it. He got two young managers who got a bunch of young footballers playing together with pride and for the shirt. Those two managers got us up and into a higher league, the gates went up, everyone was happy. In the new league we saw some cracking games, we won a few, drew a few, lost a few, we finished third sadly losing our managers on the way. Two young and novice managers took over and only missed promotion by the odd goal in front of over 2,000 punters.
That's what we achieved on the pitch.

check the grassy knoll and the chips and curry  :bunny

[Tash]

It just appears to me to be a very poor peice of journalism, full stop.

[cambocakes]

bloody too right lonegunman....i just get sooooo annoyed with peoples short memories.I was there on fathers day few years ago with the desperate appeal for a saviour and i can tell you that still gives me the shudders!!!We have no right to be any where nor do any team..we are progressing slowly but surely on and off the pitch that to me is a fantastic...ACHEIVEMEMT.My match day experience over the last two seasons have been great,,,

[BostonGoals]

The article is okay, they should have just ommited us as we are anything but on the decline, it makes sense for Scunny, Grimsby and Lincoln, but all 3 will have better seasons than last next year, so they're not in terminal decline (well Lincoln maybe).

Scunny were punching above their weight in the Championship and did well to stay up the other season. Grimsby have S&H for next season so I reckon they will be in with a shout.

As for us, everything it said about us was a load a crap, we had a great season last year, I think it really captured the Boston's public imagination, a good start next season and I think our gates will regularly be pushing 1500+.

Actually I changed my miind now, that article is a load a shite.

[green hats mate]

They overlooked the biggest failure ,    Gainsborough .

[townender3385]

Gainsborough have never been promoted or relegated in their 127 year history!

[Bostonshire]

Boston havnt had a failed manager since SE.

Tayler did the job he was asked to and that was to get us a comftable finish in BSBN in wich he did well.
RS and PH pulled the club back up.
JL and LC stepped up to the grinder and showed good spirit in taking the team after the duo left.

[wayne, york pilgrim]

success depends on ones opinion, if we had gained promotion it would have been a successful season. if you wanted to avoid relegation it would have been a successful season. if you had wanted promotion then it was not a successful season. if you wanted trophies it was not a successful season. and as seen by neutrals assessing lincolnshire football, it all does look like there is much failiure. ourselves have experienced the downfalls of our club personaly and heartfelt and we know how we are progressing in a possitive way. outsiders looking in just see success or failiure, and that we failed to get out of a league we should not be in.

[lonegunman]

success depends on ones opinion, if we had gained promotion it would have been a successful season. if you wanted to avoid relegation it would have been a successful season. if you had wanted promotion then it was not a successful season. if you wanted trophies it was not a successful season. and as seen by neutrals assessing lincolnshire football, it all does look like there is much failiure. ourselves have experienced the downfalls of our club personaly and heartfelt and we know how we are progressing in a possitive way. outsiders looking in just see success or failiure, and that we failed to get out of a league we should not be in.

Bugger what other people think! True fans know what's been going on here for the last few years. They write anything in a paper, that's their job. We're in this league because some  previous manager was bent and got caught! We were dumped here, well, lower but we're heading in the right direction.


check the grassy knoll and the chips and curry  :bunny