It's Them or Us.....

Without fear of resorting to any form of hyperbole I think we can all agree that tomorrow night's game is the single most important fixture since the invention of football.   At 9.30PM tomorrow evening either Boston or the Poppies COULD sit proudly a place or two above where they are now.  Or not.

I don't doubt the team will give their all.  They're not the best squad we've ever had.  No one would claim otherwise.  But they are OUR squad and they're becoming more competitive all the time and can give most teams outside of the promotion pushers a bit of a game at least.  My worry is the defeatist nature of a lot of our "supporters" who seem to have given up on the club for this season.  The cost of living crisis the latest excuse to abandon their club.  This following on from such favourites as leaving Rockingham Road, playing at Nonce Park, playing at Steal Park, playing at Latimer Park, not building a new Rockingham Road, losing Ian Culverhouse, appointing Lee Glover, losing Paul Cox, not getting Paul Cox back, not matching Peterborough Sports inflated valuation of Connor Kennedy, sitting behind the goal at the Morrisons End, standing behind the goal at the Morrisons End, games being called off for a flooded pitch, ditto frozen pitch, and the million other reasons you hear why our fans don't want to support their own club.

I hope I'm wrong and we don't suffer another Gloucester-style attendance embarrassment  We need a win.  We need money in the coffers.  We need supporters to give Boston's collection of under-performing prima donnas fearful grief all evening long.  A Boston squad augmented by the most prima of prima donnas - Tre Mitford.

Your club needs you.  It's as simple as that.  Time to stand up and be counted, and not hide behind online comments that begin with, "I wasn't there myself but......."

Almost as important as the game tomorrow is the opportunity, finally, to get your clammy hands on a copy of the 150th Anniversary PATGOD.  Thank God we didn't even attempt to make any of it current or relevant as it would have dated badly in the FIVE F*CKING WEEKS this issue has sat around waiting for a home fixture!  Just imagine, we could have been bigging-up Stephan Morley as the final piece of our defensive jigsaw, or claiming Cameron Gregory as our best net-minder of the modern era......

As a special, tasty treat for our loyal readers as well as Peterborough Sports fans who keep coming back to see if we dare mention their poxy little club again, we include below a snippet from this special issue relating to our rivalry with the Pilgrims.  

"For many years Boston United became our rivals.  Two equally sized clubs not a million miles apart with, crucially, no other comparable clubs close by.  Suddenly we were having Christmas and New Year games with them in front of bumper crowds.  Almost by accident these fixtures became “big games” creating a kind of artificial but most welcome rivalry.  I always think of our relationship akin to the two last wallflowers at a popular dance finding each other once all the far prettier types had coupled up.

And best not forget the "Don'ts" of buying a PATGOD at a game -

DON'T have the correct change - don't care, we're not personally selling it!

DON'T ask if it's the programme - the sellers will have less scruples than we used to, and say "yes".

DON'T read someone else's copy you tight bastard!

DON'T worry if you're too young to remember the players we write about.  We can't remember last week's line-up.

DON'T panic about shelling out for future issues.  Not going to happen!

DON'T ask for a discount because you know the writers.  Unlikely, and if we did it's doubtful we'd like you. 

Let's see if we can't ease another
Boston boss a little closer to the exit....

Northants FA Strikes Back. Back.

Many thanks to Callum at the Northants FA for a very quick response to my rather sarcy email about the utterly bleak pointless blot on the footballing landscape otherwise known as the Northants County Cup.

"Hi Pat,

Thank you for your email.

The reason for scheduling this game on Tuesday 7th February was after discusiion with both the National League, Kettering and Coegnhoe. This date was agreed by ALL parties as being the best date for the game.

A lot goes on behind the scenes to get these games on and to plan the final which I am sure should Kettering reach their Fans will be behind them and support the competition.

It is the FA who decide all County Cups take precedence over league games so you will need to write  to the man FA to question that ruling.

Best wishes and I hope to see you at the Semi final.

Kind regards...."

Interesting.  If correct, it would appear that the Poppies DID have a say in the date chosen despite the tone of their original tweet from the club suggesting the game had been entirely forced upon them.  Interesting also that Callum is to all intents and purposes, inviting us to challenge the Football Association itself to rescind the pre-eminence of the County Cups over League fixtures.  We may just check this out.

Less convincing is the assertion that the County Cup takes a lot of organising.  Really?  Isn't it more the case that someone very junior at Northants FA simply draws the names of the local non-league teams out of a hat, and then phones either Peterborough United or Northampton Town to get one of them to play the winner?  I'd say that's about 15 minutes work.  Including a tea-break.  And, if the County Cup is so important, with the threat of expulsion from the FA Cup, Trophy and Vase used to keep clubs in line, WHY aren't the Posh and Cobblers also compelled to compete?  Surely having the flagship clubs from Northants FA play in their own bloody competition would boost the worth of the endeavour.  But no, they get to sit out this sh*t-fest.  Of course they do.  Can't have REAL clubs sully their hands on this waste of time, can they?  Not when you can bully lesser clubs to your will.  If the County Cup is such a vital cog in the workings of NFA and the clubs it represents, how about next season offering everyone the OPTION of playing in it?  See how many takers you would get....

Another bumper turn out for the Northants Cup

Northants FA Strike Back!

We've mentioned the pointless Northants FA before on PATGOD and how they and their tinpot cup are the only things that matter in the world to them.  Like a closed shop of unnecessary bureaucracy who see nothing beyond their own existence, and use their totally unjustified power to lord it over us they have struck again to show us who's the boss....

We've dropped Northants FA the following email.  Let's see if they deign to comment.

"Can you advise why the Northants FA have scheduled this fixture to replace a Kettering Town FC league fixture?  In a season where most clubs are having to fit in numerous postponed games, why have you not picked a date when Kettering have a spare day, rather than one already allocated?

All local clubs need to get their league fixtures played as soon as possible to earn the money to keep them going.  So, what have the NFA done?  Compelled Kettering to postpone a money making local derby to play your Cup game in front of probably a double figure gate.

If your Cup game must be played (and there's a very good case to cancel the competition given the backlog of games every club has) why not schedule it for Thursday 9th February rather than Tuesday 7th?  Not doing so makes no sense to anyone outside of your organisation.

I appreciate that you have no compulsion to respond to this email but feel it is right you had a sense of how annoying your arbitrary rulings can be.  Do you consult with the clubs in question at all?  Do you consider your competition to be more important than league games, because, let me tell you, no-one else does.

I'd be interested to know."

Cameron Gregory - desperate to play in the Northern Premier League

Even though I was at the game at Bradford last Saturday I failed to notice latest Poppies reject and latest Boston panic-buy from Latimer Park, Cameron Gregory wearing the previously outlawed grey Away Poppies Goalkeeping shirt.  

I didn't notice partly because he was at the opposite end of the ground from me but mostly because he was hitting the showers with about an hour of the game still to go.  Perhaps it is a jinxed shirt.  Goalie sent off before half-time.  Same goalie never plays for us again. Team concedes 96th minute equaliser.  Seems pretty conclusive.  

This shirt certainly been a bit of a jinx on the road for us this season as I've been wearing the same top up until the Boxing Day game at Peterborough when it was usurped by a Christmas present dinosaur pattern top (don't you dare judge me) from 'er indoors.  My newly-installed favourite ever dinosaur shirt now has 4 points from 2 away games, which I think is a point more than my grey goalie top earned from all of the other away games this season.

Case closed.

Jeez, just how freakishly l-o-n-g is Cameron's arm?
What a freak!  Mind you - it will be ideal to supplement 
his income harvesting Lincolnshire's finest
swedes and cabbages without straining his back
 should he remain at Boston long enough.

Little Vern gives it both barrels

Worth a watch before you instantly side with a player ahead of the club

It shoudn't, but it does still surprise me when Poppies fans instantly take the word of players who have been with us five minutes over the that of Ritchie, who has spent a decade putting this club back together on and off the field.  Someone who has invested more time and money into the Poppies than you or me ever could or would, just to give us a club to slag off.

Every time an Elliott Shitstirrer, or a Stephan Past-it bleats on social media far too many of  us are super-eager to believe every whiny-word.  It doesn't matter if they spent the entirety of a player's tenure slagging them off - as soon as that player heads towards the exit throwing accusations over their shoulders there are always those ready to take everything they spout as gospel.

The above video is well worth five minutes of your time.  It certainly told me things about different player contracts I, and I suspect, most of you didn't know.  Without mentioning any fullbacks nudging the end of their careers by name Ritchie, with far less rancour than I'd have managed, explains how things work with the different types of contracts at this level.  Perhaps if a few player agents spent as much time explaining these facts of football life to their clueless clients as they do trying to engineer moves we'd all be a lot better off - players and supporters alike.

"Oi gobshite....read ya fackin' contract next time!"

7-days to shape the season

The 7-days between the 14th - 21st January could decide whether the Poppies continue to fight relegation from within the bottom four or sit just above the cut-off mark and work at throwing other clubs down the table and below us.

In a seven day period we play Boston and Curzon at home and Telford away.  Three eminently winnable games.  Three wins which could potentially lift us well up into mid-table, or, as this season's table reads - the upper reaches of the relegation battle.  Like most Poppies fans I imagine I've simply looked at the teams in our immediate vicinity, without looking further into the "safe" mid table.  Well, I've done that today and the table makes more encouraging reading than I had imagined.

Teams that at first glance seem safely ensconced in mid-table mediocrity are actually only a couple of bad results away from tickling the relegation zone.  Equally, teams that seem nailed-on for relegation, (cough, Bradford, cough) have hauled themselves clear of the drop zone with a few back to back wins.  It really is THAT tight.

My biggest worry isn't how the team will do.  They'll give their all and if things go our way they should pick up points.  I'm more concerned with our increasingly fractious fan base.  Will they even come to these important games?  After the chastening 373 against Gloucester I'm not sure anymore.  How many of our supporters will continue to grizzle from their homes under the mistaken belief that somehow calling for the Manager's and Chairmen's head every other week in any way equates to being a Poppies fan?  Will too many of us continue to moan about games and performances we couldn't be bothered to actually witness for ourselves.  

Could some of those hundreds of local people who still refer to themselves as Poppies fans but who's only connection with the club comes in the form of online barracking actually get to a game?  How great would it be to top 1000 for the Boston game.  What a pick-up for the players, the club and the bank balance?

Next Saturday against Boston should be a game no self-respecting Poppies fan will miss.  A win and we leapfrog them and their big budget signings, shiny stadium and string of former Poppies gaffers.  And if that's not enough to tempt everyone to Latimer Park, we're pretty sure finally getting the chance to buy the Anniversary PATGOD should do it!

Don't let Eli get all the Poppies man-love....!