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But seriously folks, if that proves to be too tall an order, it should be remembered that the season was still alive up until very recently, and that’s still massive progress on all hope being lost by February.
Saturday’s visitors Boston United do have a very live chance of qualifying for the play-offs having limped to a 1-0 win at Banbury on Tuesday, a win that extinguished the Bulls’ last realistic hopes of doing something incredible in this game, unless they do something REALLY incredible.
The limpy nature of that win is symptomatic of where the Pilgrims are at currently. They’re making heavy weather of getting over the play-off line, having picked up just a solitary point from their last three games prior to the game at Banbury, which doesn’t really count given the sorry state of the Oxfordshire club currently. All of this suggests that the hosts, playing without the pressure that’s on the visitors, should have a very good chance of finishing the season on a high, in stark contrast to the no-show at Blyth this time last year.
That said, Boston’s recent 3-0 demolition of Chorley away from home is inarguably impressive, and demonstrates that they’re a threat.
Last season was one of underachievement for Boston given the size of the club and its budget. They finished 15th, one place above Hereford. However, manager Ian Culverhouse knows his onions at this level, winning promotion with Kings Lynn a few seasons back with a side that wasn’t averse to finding a way to win in whatever way necessary, and having been in post for 18 months (which is long-service gold watch territory for football managers of course) this is now very much ‘his’ squad.
They’ve lost as many as they’ve won this season away from home, but they’ll have the added incentive of knowing that a win here gives them the final play-off spot regardless of what anyone else does. One possible advantage of that is that it’ll make for an open game with both sides going for the win, and the visitors not prioritising collapsing to the floor at every given opportunity.
In the ex-Bull category, Ben Pollock left the club for Spennymoor last summer, whilst Kelsey Mooney joined from relegated Leamington.
As with Warrington last week, two Boston players score a big chunk of the side’s goals. Jimmy Knowles has 18 and Mooney has 16, with seven of the ex-Bull’s 16 coming in just two games recently. Those two have contributed over half of the Pilgrims’ goals this season.
Knowles scored a very good goal when Boston beat Hereford 1-0 in November, but the amount of space he was given to do so made it possible, in what was a flat Bulls performance generally.
Hereford come into this one with ten points from their last five games - play-off form with knobs on. Aaron Skinner will be sitting it out with an injury, but Nathan
Cameron is back following suspension. With Paul Downing also back last week,
that could mean Paul Caddis going with three centre backs, with Jid Okeke and
Lewis Hudson as wing-backs. Jid seems to be one anyway by hellbent attacking
inclination, and Lewis announced his arrival as one with a typical wing-back’s
goal against Warrington, so the role seems safe in their hands. Ollie Southern will presumably be a doubt again with an ongoing sciatica issue.
There was no place in the squad for Jordan Lyden at Warrington, so Lawson D’ath and Aurio Teixera will probably be doing the donkey work in the middle, with Yusifu Ceesay, Alex Babos and Tope Obadeyi doing the more fancy stuff up ahead of them.
The Bulls have only won one of the four Edgar Street encounters between these two sides, and one particularly lifeless display, a 2-0 defeat which was also on the last day of the season, led to my children vowing never to come to another game, a vow that five years on remains in place, despite me saying “It’s better now!”
The pictures on Bulls News last weekend of the fancy dress-clad supporters at Warrington really warmed the cockles, although Kim Jong-un took me by surprise. I was so surprised I initially thought it was an attempt at a likeness of one of the players, until I noticed he was carrying an intercontinental ballistic missile, an unlikely accoutrement for a National League North footballer, or indeed any footballer. Having said that, missiles do tend of course to be the toys of choice of left or right wingers – admittedly really extreme left or right wingers.
The pictures demonstrated the happy place the club is at currently, and with some fine-tuning over the summer there seems to be every reason to be optimistic about finally getting over that play-off line in 2024/25. Oh how these years fly by.
Finally, as ever, thank you to everyone who has dipped into my ramblings here over the course of the season - I really appreciate you taking the time to do so. If I'm allowed, I'll be back next time.
COYW