Cox welcomes Crawford to Boston

 

Welcome to HATGOD

We're sad to say that our time at Kettering Town has come to an end.  PATGOD would like to thank the numerous Chairmen, Managers, Staff and especially our readership for their continued unstinting support over the years.  You've all been great.  Except, of course, for the Chairmen, Managers, Staff and fans who threatened us with bans, prosecution or hairy kisses.

But now it's time for a new challenge.  A fresh start.  A breaking dawn.  An exciting re-birth.  A new challenge and a fresh start.  And a new challenge.

So, starting next season we hope you enjoy reading "Harborough at the Gates of Dawn".  The offer we received to drop a couple of divisions and shoot blogged fish in a lower league barrel AND be paid handsomely was far too good to resist.  

We hope you will continue to read HATGOD and amusing articles about spotting the fans at home games, Mitch Austin's beard maintenance tips and writing about former Poppies players you were convinced had retired or died years ago.

So, watch out Boldmere St Michaels, Dereham Town and Sporting Khalsa!  HATGOD is coming for you!

Please be aware that in an effort to generate the funds needed to
hoover up every mercenary has-been in the area we are going to 
need to monetise HATGOD.

By reading this article you now owe us £1.75.  Click here to
pay into HTFC's Paypal account.

Don't Let the Door Hit You in the Ass......

Anyone else getting some serious deja-vu whenever players leave clubs during the close season these days?  I mean, is there a template they use?  Are they legally obliged to follow the same script?  When was the last time a player left a club without their tweet reading a little like this.....

"My time at (insert club name here) has come to an end.  I want to thank (insert club name here) and especially the fans who have been brilliant during my time here.

It's time for a new challenge, I'm ready for the next step, I'm looking forward to the latest chapter, I'm prepared for what comes next and other self-motivational bullshit.

I wish (insert club name here) all the best for the future.  C'mon you (insert club nickname here)!"

If you're leaving just f**king leave.  Go sign for that bigger club.  Go get that bigger paycheck.  But if you want your former supporters to think well of you at least write an original leaving message and not just re-hash a cut-and-paste effort.

You're leaving? Well Boo Hoo!
We'll miss you until you're replaced and then
in 6-months we'll have forgotten you entirely!

Don't Panic!

 

We've still got 13 players listed on the website.  That's enough for a team, with, obviously Milovanovic and Deacon on the bench.  

A good, strong 4 or 5-man centre back set-up.  Who needs fullbacks after all?

A fairly defensive midfield and a forward line that picks itself.

OK, a bit light on the goalkeeping front, but we are where we are.

We should be OK provided no-one else leaves, we don't pick up any injuries and the opposition are all remarkably shot-shy.

Could be the last report from LIncolnshire for a while as Boston stumble at the last!

 

Eeny meeny minny mo.....

This afternoon we lose either York City or Boston United for at least a season, while they get spanked rigorously in The National League and then come back down.  But, being entirely even-handed and rational Poppies fans, who should we be cheering?  Or rather, booing slightly less?  Let's look at the evidence....

York City shouldn't really be this far down the footballing pyramid.  They are a big club.  We all know this.  If only because large swathes of their support constantly tell us.  But they are at this level.  Yes, it was great fun watching their rather desperate #promotetwo shenanigans.  It was even more enjoyable to do the double over them this season after bossing them off the park repeatedly without success.  But do we want to lose them?  York is a great place to visit.  OK, the ground is now a rugby stadium, miles away from the city, hidden inside a fitness centre, but York is still York.  A great day or weekend away.

Boston too have moved out of town to the back-end of the middle of nowhere, which takes some doing considering the town itself is already in the middle of nowhere.  Like most Poppies fans of a certain vintage I've always liked Boston as a club.  Great Christmas time matches.  Tonking victories.  A thousand fans on their immense town-end terrace.  As similar sized clubs with no other local rivals we gravitated towards one another to become unlikely but reasonably friendly rivals.

If it wasn't for a chubby, hissing, Cox-shaped problem at the heart of the Pilgrims I would definitely be hoping for Boston to gain promotion today.  But like an unpleasant smell, Cox is difficult to ignore.

So, God knows.  As a matter of fact perhaps God DOES know.  Which iconic ecclesiastical building are we willing to lose....?

In Praise of a (Semi) Professional Bench Warmer

Graham James, possibly our most prolific guest writer (admittedly not a large group) looks at the slight Poppies career of Saul Milovanic which might just take longer to read than he spent on the pitch!

When we next get through to a televised FA Cup game they will look back at our history and discover the initial shirt sponsorship and FA Cup goalscoring records. What they might also discover is our recent record-breaking speed in starting rumours and criticism of a manager within 24 hours after the end of a much better than expected season. (oh, just seen that he has left!)

To deflect my disappointment of this I started to look at the player-of-the-season awards. Which must be the only one where there seems to be as many awards as there are who attend. However, my expectations in this ceremony were totally misplaced when I discovered that Saul Milovanovic did not pick up even one award.  

His ‘journey’ started here just before Christmas 2021 when players were coming and going with a mystifying regularity. One new signing by Paul Cox stood out though as we discovered that we were signing a Serbian.  He was given the usual welcome and given the normal platitude of hoping that he has a happy and successful time here and was described as being a good addition to the squad.

I am sure that many of us quickly made our normal searches on the endless statistics- based websites to find out all about him. It was not difficult to see that he had promisingly played for Huddersfield and Norwich under- 23s and we already had some players from similar teams. In fact, he was signed by Norwich as a coach moved there from Huddersfield and recommended him. He was described as a defensive midfielder (apparently) and had played numerous games for Norwich u-23s but without ever making the first team, not even as a late substitute in an early round Carabou Cup game.   

Possibly the only photograph of Saul
in a red top.  Not a Poppies top.  Still....

His er… “career” with Kettering Town Football Club got off to a very slow start with the games both before and after Christmas being called off due to covid in the ranks. He sort of started with us on January 2nd by starting on the bench in the 3-1 win against Brackley (not many teams did that). He did not actually come on but he had the honour of replacing Kyle Perry on the bench. His stuttering beginning continued with the next game also called off. The following game was the reverse fixture at Brackley. 

He made his debut there with him coming on after 62 minutes. I don’t think it is too much of a spoiler to say that this was to be his longest appearance. Looking back, it did not really show that Cox was convinced about him yet. The team still had some players out with covid. We only had 4 substitutes and one of them was Ed Cook who had been called back from his loan at Grantham, because they did not have a game, Sherriff had come on at half time and the other substitute was Davies, a goalkeeper. Not only that but George Cooper, a young centre -half, was selected as a defensive midfielder ahead of Saul. The match report did not mention any contribution by him.

Luke Graham did not use him in his one and only game but then came the arrival of Culverhouse. With him having strong Norwich connections, it is quite likely that he was aware of Saul, or at least knew people who knew him. He did get 15 minutes to impress in Cully’s first game though we were  behind and he was the third substitute used , of the 4 on the bench. Obviously he didn’t impress though as he then started his first run of non-appearances which included games where club stalwarts such as Diakiesse and Joshua were picked ahead of him and O’Connell was brought off the bench instead of him at Telford, despite him being an on loan centre half, with the score at 2-2. The signing of Jack Smith did not help his chances and then some good performances by Calder denied him further opportunities.

He had a cameo appearance of 3 minutes at Spennympoor with us being 2-1 down and the others keeping him company on the bench that day being 2 youth team players and an injured goalkeeper. It was a similar situation the next week at Chester with suspensions, injuries and some players not fully fit but playing. At least he played for 21 minutes, albeit coming on we were 4-0 down.

So the 19^th March was to be the last time we saw him in a Kettering shirt that was not covered by a tracksuit. His total playing time in just 4 games was therefore the grand total of 67 minutes spread over 4 months, always coming on when we were losing and only 15 minutes of them at home. He was not mentioned as making any contribution in the match reports and did not even get on the bench so much towards the end of the season when the injury list shortened.

He must be either the most patient or the most unambitious player we have ever had. I don’t suppose that he will get to see the normal thanks for his contribution and we will only know that he has gone when somebody notices his name appear probably at a Southern League team. If his photo ever comes up in the Poppies quiz in the programme, will anyone ever remember him, even though he was here for half a season?  Let’s just hope he starts the first game next season.