Saturday 21st May 2022
National League North - Play Off Final
at the LNER Community Stadium
York City (1) 2
Lenell John-Lewis 5, Maziar Kouhyar 85
Boston United (0) 0
Attendance: 7,448 (inc. 853 away fans)
York City:
Peter Jameson, Olly Dyson, Maxim Kouogun, Sam Sanders, Scott Barrow (Matty Brown 71); Mitch Hancox, Akil Wright, Paddy McLaughlin; Clayton Donaldson, Lenell John-Lewis, Maz Kouhyar.
Unused Subs - Michael Woods, Kurt Willoughby, Jack McKay, Ryan Whitley
Boston United:
Marcus Dewhurst, Femi Seriki, Luke Shiels, Scott Garner, Keenan Ferguson; Shane Byrne, Brad Abbott (Ntumba Massanka 60); Paul Green, Connor Dimaio (Fraser Preston 83); Jake Wright Jnr (James Hanson 75), Danny Elliott.
Unused Subs - Scott Duxbury, Jake Wright Snr.
The play offs, love 'em or loathe 'em they're here to stay, prolonging the life of each and every league campaign they touch, providing an emotional roller coaster of a climax (and anti-climax) to the season, for all of those involved, steeped high in all manner of joys and sorrows.
The road to Damascus is littered with the burnt out hopes and dreams of many a team who came up short in the play-offs, or were a mere misplaced penalty kick away from fulfilling an whole season's worth of promise in one of these winner takes it all showdowns..
To that end, are the play-offs fair? Are they hell as like. But they inject a whole lot of excitement into the game and that is a fact that even anyone who has suffered the indignity of taking a tumble at the final hurdle can't deny.
I would imagine, that this year at least, Brackley Town aren't massive fans of the play-off format currently adopted by the National League North, which saw them finish the scheduled season a massive twenty one points ahead of York City, before missing out on promotion when they lost against the Minstermen in a one off semi-final game last weekend.
And what of third placed AFC Fylde? Well, they finished seventeen points above Boston United, but lost out to them in a similar fashion, after the Pilgrims had only secured seventh place and a play-off berth by pipping Kettering Town, Alfreton Town and Spennymoor Town to the post on the last Saturday of their forty-two game season.
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| The away end. |
Though there won't be many people among the supporters of Boston and York who will be feeling very much sympathy for the plight of either Brackley or AFC Fylde, looking at the much wider ranging bigger picture, let us not forget that both of today's play-off final combatants have suffered more than their fair share of misfortune of various sorts in the not so distant past too.
Of course there will be those who'll say that York have reached the upper echelons of non-league football via the back door, or even via a handily placed step ladder through a window of opportunity that had been left open for them to exploit.
But however you want to look at it, a promotion is a promotion whatever else you might want to call it.
Although today's game was a complete sell out, there were still plenty of empty seats to be seen around the ground. This was down to the local authorities and police imposing sanctions against York City after their fans had 'over celebrated' qualifying for the play-off semi finals, after a home win against Chorley, during which a number of seats were damaged, apparently at no small cost to the host club.
Bootham Crescent (York City) and York Street, ironically enough (Boston United) were among my favourite olde world football grounds, but sentiment and nostalgia seldom survive the beheading axe of progress and big bucks redevelopment schemes on prime real estate land.
Having visited the two new out of town stadiums that both of today's clubs have moved to, as part of my travels earlier this season (see more in depth details elsewhere), I'd have to say that as new builds go, they ain't too shabby. And if I actually ever moved home to live in either locality, I'd more than likely be a regular visitor at Pilgrims or Minstermen games... purely in my capacity as a neutral you understand.
Of course neither stadium have any of the quirks, charm and character the old homesteads, but they don't have the various discomforts, restricted views and wholly unacceptable toilet facilities that came with the retro-stadia either. Maybe I'm just getting old and don't mind a bit of comfort nowadays.
Some people say that this is a soulless ground... but in fairness, it was certainly lively enough today.
On the subject of senior citizens; while I was queueing to get in to the game, two pensioners in front of me were chatting, "My wife said: 'If I ever see you on a football pitch misbehaving, I'll never talk to you again!'. Well Sid, I'm going to have to apologise to the linesman in advance today, but he's gonna get some proper fist when the games finished," Needs must I guess.
It's a good job that my good friend (and very famous match official) Jamie O'Connor was carrying out his duties on the far touchline today. Although I do know a quite few people who might've enjoyed seeing an 'owd codger lump him one ;-)
York qualified for home advantage this afternoon as the highest ranked side to have qualified for the final through their performances in the play-off matches, having seen off Chorley, as well as the previously mentioned Brackley Town. Today they took to the field of play bolstered by confidence of having enjoyed a recent run of great form that had seen them build up an unbeaten sequence of seven consecutive games.
Boston similarly came into the final, having suffered just a solitary defeat in their previous nine games.
Two years ago. they lost in the National League North play-off final against Altrincham.
Paul Cox’s side saw off Kidderminster Harriers and AFC Fylde in their play-off games and although today's hosts were slight favourites to take the spoils, the final league table never lies and it shows that today's visitors only finished three points behind their hosts.
It was also worth taking into considering that the Pilgrims won 0-1 when the clubs last met at the LNER Community Stadium in March and also beat the Minstermen 2-1 down in 'famous Lincolnshire' back in October.
So the scene is set. And if you're all sitting comfortably, then I'll begin.
John Askey's City team got off to a flying start when they took an early lead during the frantic opening exchanges, after Scott Barrow launched a long throw into the visitors penalty area that Lenell John-Lewis collected and skilfully took under his control, before burying ball into the bottom corner of Marcus Dewhurst's net.
John-Lewis is enjoying a rich vein of form, to the extent that his opening strike was the sixth goal he's scored in his last seven appearances.
For their part, the visitors protested about the goal because they thought that they should have been given a free-kick instead, when York had been awarded the throw in that they scored from in front of the away fans.
One of the home supporters celebrated the opening goal by throwing a pink pyro smoke canister onto the pitch at the opposite end of the ground, which if nothing else match the colour of their goalkeeper: Pete Jameson's very fetching attire, but stunk something rotten.
It wasn't to be the last time that Boston were to feel aggrieved about not getting the rub of the green from the officials. They had two penalty appeals turned way over the course of the afternoon too, one for what looked suspiciously like a blatant handball by Mitch Hancox... and the other, a less clear cut incident early in the second half, when Paul Green went to ground under a strong challenge inside York's area.
But hey! These things balance themselves out over the course of the whole season... apparently!
Luke Shiels, the Boston captain was leading his troops by example and came close to finding an equalising goal several times, looking especially dangerous when getting forward to help out and add his presence at corners and set pieces.
But though the visitors battled gamely, the Ministermen always seemed to have that bit extra in their tanks and had the better of the goal scoring chances, not least when Clayton Donaldson hit the crossbar with an exquisite curling shot just before the break, on what was to be the occasion of his last ever appearance for City.
Boston came out and made a real go of things in the second-half, pretty much as you'd expect with the final outcome to their whole season at stake, but a combination of York's resilience and a few near misses was just about keeping them at bay.
Shane Byrne's free-kick looked to be on it's way in, but was pushed away by Jameson who pulled off a great save to preserve his sides slender lead,
With fingernails being chewed to the bone and the clock ticking down, United were committing men forward in a last ditch bid to level things up and people were asking whether there would be extra-time or if it would go straight to penalties in the event of a draw.
But as the game moved into it's final five minutes, Maziar Kouhyar won the ball out on the right and muscled forward into Boston's area before slotting the ball between Dewhurst and the right hand upright. The home fans erupted, so to speak, with a heady mix of joyous celebration and relief, while City shut up shop to repel the last dying embers of Boston's second half endeavours.
FT: York City 2 v Boston United 0
Much as a night out in York to finish the trip off was massively tempting, I'm heading to Wembley on an early train in the morning, for the FA Non League Finals Day, so I hopped into my escape pod with mi' Julie straight after the final whistle and we were soon heading home via the A64 and A1, listening to my extensive playlist of Richard H Kirk material... by 'eck I don't half spoil her sometimes.
