Tuesday 12th July 2022
Pre Season Friendly
at the Dave Longstaff Martin and Co Arena
The Northolme
Gainsborough Trinity (0) 2
Andrew Wright 54, Tom Curson 62
Boston United (3) 3
Scott Pollock 9, 42, 45
Attendance: 329
Ah, the perils of pre season blog reportage: visiting players without numbers on the back of their shirts, many of them using the alias of 'Trialist' (Boston had a minimum of at least five of these on the pitch at one point during the second half); just the starting eleven listed on the team sheet for the hosts sans any substitute details or number identification, a matchday announcer regularly reminding people of the score (but not the names of the scorers) every time a goal went in... he also added additional entertainment, cracking a couple of jokes that sounded as though he'd unearthed a box of old Christmas crackers in a time capsule from way back, that he's dug up while turning the garden over for a tight-fisted relative who only ever bought cheap crackers.
But all's well that ends well, and I've dug deep into my somewhat limited reserves of resourcefulness and/or failing that, I'll just have a bleedin' guess and possibly even make it all up (again).
It's all part of the fun innit? Or so I'm told.
It's become something of a club tradition for Trinity to wear a variety of pre season kits over the past few years or so, that bear no resemblance whatsoever to their traditional royal blue and white favours. This years ensemble is a rather fetching amber/orange/tangerine* (delete as you see fit) and black number, which tricked a few late arrivals to the Northolme, who thought that Boston were wearing a variation of their usual colours, but in the event they were actually sporting a pink and grey kit.
It would appear that the change strip is quite popular amongst the Pilgrims followers and I would have to say that the visual effect of spectators strutting their stuff in such attire is quite striking, while adding the caveat the any persons who don't fit snuggly into either a small or medium sized shirt, really shouldn't wear one of these garments in a public place. It's all about personal choice and tolerating other peoples life preferences of course.
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| Do not adjust your set, that actually really is the legendary Clayton Donaldson |
Paul Cox's visiting side narrowly won this all Lincolnshire affair after being three goals ahead at the break, thanks to a Scott Pollock hat-trick... the third of which was actually worthy of winning any game of football. Bergkamp-esque I'm reliably informed.
But the list of positives that the Holy Blues, AKA Ecclesiastical Tangerines, (not really, I'm elaborating unnecessarily ((again)), could draw on at the end of this evening's outing was fairly lengthy. I can't imagine that anybody connected to Trinity would've been disappointed with their performance, even though there are obviously certain teams that they absolutely hate to lose against... and the Pink Pilgrims feature quite heavily in that category, even though their 'local' county rivalry extends over sixty miles between the two towns.
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Gainsborough's elder statesmen: Neal Bishop and Clayton Donaldson (making his debut for Trinity tonight) may well have doubled the average age of tonight's starting line-up between them, but their influence in the opening stages of the game was evident for all to see. However, in the ninth minute, as United probed for an opening deep inside the home team's half, with the ball pinging around inside the area and neither side able to take control of the situation, Scott Pollock took matters into his own hands and lashed an unstoppable angled shot past Matt Yates from the right-hand edge of the six yard box.
The Pilgrims looked well-drilled and supremely fit (They'll have to be, because they've got an away game at Boston Town's Tattershall Road tomorrow), but Trinity were competing well and creating a lot of flowing moves too.
With half-time approaching fast, the home side had a penalty appeal waved away, when the match referee: James Moody ruled that Brad Grayson hadn't been tripped as he was toppled inside the Boston area, surely one of his assistant's must've had a better view... or were they just there for offsides, throw-ins and ornamental value? That was a rhetorical question, by the way... and I think those of a Trinity persuasion already know the answer. But whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation might have been, it was a pivotal moment because inside the remaining three minutes of the first-half (S) Pollock scored twice to chalk up a hat-trick before the interval.
Never mind the Pollocks, where's our bloody penalty ref? You could say. His second goal, was netted from a similar position to his first, but stabbed home with even more ferocity, and his third... well, read on.
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Hats off to that man for his skill and ingenuity, as he received the ball from Alex Brown with his back to goal, flicked it up over his shoulder and pirouetted on the spot, before calmly clipping it past Yates.
'Twas a combination of John Curry, a British figure skater and gold medallist, and Tony Currie, English international footballer whose talents were scandalously underused by Don Revie (it's no wonder England never qualified for successive World Cups during the nineteen-seventies).
Boston went straight for the jugular following the restart, looking to build on their lead while knowing that Trinity were going to have to commit men forward to chase the game. Not that pre season results count for very much in the grand scheme of things (says every supporter in the world when their team of choice has just lost one).
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But it was Gainsborough who scored next, when the visitors keeper: Rhys Davies, charged out of his area in a vainglorious effort to clear the ball in front of the Blues Club's back door, but Andrew Wright got their a fraction before him, burst past the stranded keeper and rolled it into the unguarded net from an improbable angle. Fifty-four minutes gone. Game on!? It certainly was.
Around the hour mark Tom Curson entered the fray from on the bench, as one of the endless squad rotation substitutions that invariably punctuates the latter part of second-half of these sort of practice matches. But in this case, it was an inspired tweak in the hosts formation, as Curson picked up the ball in the middle of the park, surged forward with intent and thumped the ball past Davies from the edge of the area.
Trinity couldn't quite find an elusive third goal, despite some impressive movement around the outside of the visitors box by some of the younger players who'd been introduced as the clock ticked down.
United saw the game out and held on to the win that Pollock's first-half goals had earned them and we all headed home having been thoroughly entertained.
FT: Gainsborough Trinity 2 v Boston United 3
To read Rob Hughes more detailed and accurate version of events, click HERE and follow him on Twitter @AATM_Media while your at it too.
