England National League North 03/29 15:00 42 Boston Utd v Peterborough Sports - View
England National League North 04/01 14:00 43 Rushall Olympic v Boston Utd - View
England National League North 04/06 14:00 44 Boston Utd v Brackley - View
England National League North 04/13 14:00 45 Boston Utd v Scarborough Athletic - View
England National League North 04/16 18:45 39 Banbury v Boston Utd - View
England National League North 04/20 14:00 46 Hereford FC v Boston Utd - View

Wikipedia - Boston United F.C.

Boston United Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The club participates in the National League North, at the sixth level of the English football league system.

The club is known as 'the Pilgrims' in reference to the Pilgrim Fathers, who left England and sailed to North America and settled near, though did not found, Boston, Massachusetts. The club's crest features the pilgrim fathers' ship, the Mayflower. The club's traditional colours are amber and black. They are rivals with Lincoln City, Scunthorpe United, Gainsborough Trinity and Grimsby Town. They play at the Jakemans Community Stadium, which was completed in 2020 with a capacity of 5,061 (2,155 seated) spectators.

The club was formed in 1933 as a successor to the short lived Boston Town. They initially competed in the Midland League, before joining the Southern League for a four-year spell in 1958. They returned to the Midland League and then joined then United Counties League, winning their first league title in 1965–66. Boston then switched to the West Midlands (Regional) League, winning the Premier Division in 1966–67 and 1967–68, before becoming founder members of the Northern Premier League in 1968. United won four Northern Premier League titles in the 1970s (1972–73, 1973–74, 1976–77 and 1977–78) and became founder members of Alliance Premier League in 1979. Boston returned to the Northern Premier League in 1993 and moved back to the Southern League Premier Division in 1998.

Boston United won the Southern League in 1999–2000 and the Conference in 2001–02 to secure a place in the Football League for the first time under the stewardship of controversial manager Steve Evans. They spent five years in the fourth tier, but entered administration in 2007 and were relegated down two divisions into the Conference North. Demoted to the Northern Premier League the next year, Boston won the Northern Premier League Premier Division play-offs in 2010 and have since had five unsuccessful play-off campaigns in the Conference and National League North.

History

The club was founded in 1933 as a successor to a club called Boston Town. Their first game was a 3–1 defeat at home to Grimsby Reserves on 26 August 1933, when a crowd of 1,544 watched Boston's no.7, Blessed, score United's first ever goal. They then had a moderate amount of success in various leagues, including the Midland League and Southern League.

The club's FA cup run of 1955–56 included a 6–1 victory at Derby County, then playing in Third Division North, with Geoff Hazledine scoring a hat-trick. This was a record away win by a non-League team against League opponents in the FA Cup. This set up a Third round match against Tottenham Hotspur of the Football League First Division at White Hart Lane on 7 January 1956. The match against Tottenham Hotspur was played in front of a crowd of 46,185. The Pilgrims lost 4–0, but the match was more notable for the travelling support. Over 10,000 Boston supporters attended the game. A number of special train services from Boston to King's Cross were set up for the day.

They were founder members of the Northern Premier League in 1968, of which they were champions four times, and of the Alliance Premier League (now the National League) in 1979. However, their Northern Premier League title wins were not enough to gain them election to the Football League, and when they won the title in 1978 they surprisingly missed out on league status in favour of runners-up Wigan Athletic, who took the Football League place previously held by Southport.

In 1985, Boston United went to Wembley for the first and only time in their history for the FA Trophy Final of the 1984–85 season, after Bob Lee scored a winning last minute goal in the 2nd leg of the semi-final against Altrincham at York Street to put the Pilgrims through. Boston lost 2–1 to Wealdstone in front of 20,775, with Chris Cook scoring United's only goal.

Boston United finished third in the Conference in 1988–89, but were unable to build on this and were relegated to the NPL in 1993. They were transferred to the Southern League, winning the title in 2000, and went fully professional in 2001. In their first season as a professional club, Boston won the Conference and were promoted to the Football League.

However, in the wake of their promotion, Boston's manager, Steve Evans, and former chairman, Pat Malkinson, were charged with breaking the Football Association's rules over the registration of players. Both men received bans from the FA, and the club were fined and docked four points from their first season in the League. This angered some, especially the Conference runners up Dagenham & Redbridge, who believed that any points deduction should have applied to the previous season, which would have meant Dagenham being promoted instead.

Youth team coach Neil Thompson was appointed as manager for Boston's maiden Football League season, and though they left it late to secure survival, they ultimately managed a creditable 15th-place finish. The following season resulted in another relegation battle, and as soon as former manager Steve Evans had served his suspension in full, Thompson was sacked and Evans was reinstated as manager, leading them to a strong late-season run and an eventual finish of 11th. Evans' return and a substantial investment in the playing squad saw Boston among the promotion favourites for the 2004–05 season, but it in fact resulted in a disappointing 16th place. 2005-06 would prove to be their most successful Football League season, with their finish of 11th being their joint-highest, but the club missing out on the play-offs by just five points (having missed out by a much larger margin in 2003–04).

Wrexham defender Ryan Valentine scores the penalty kick against Boston United which relegated The Pilgrims.

The 2006–07 season saw Boston struggle all season long, however, and in May 2007, Boston were relegated from Football League Two on the last day of the season. Steve Evans and his assistant Paul Raynor on 27 May resigned from the club, and two days later joined Crawley Town.

Because of the relegation Boston were originally scheduled to play the 2007–08 season in the Conference National but this position was immediately placed in doubt after the club's chairman Jim Rodwell entered Boston into a Company Voluntary Arrangement late in their last game so that 10 points would then be deducted in the 2006–07 season instead of the 2007–08 season. Although this meant that Boston started the 2007–08 season without a points penalty FA rules dictated that they be demoted 2 divisions as a result of HM Revenue & Customs placing a restriction into the CVA of Boston not being allowed to pay football creditors 100% of what they were owed. They therefore played the 2007–08 season in the Conference North division, two steps below the Football League. This would be United's first season under the new ownership of David Newton and Neil Kempster, who took control of the club over from ex-Chairman Jim Rodwell.

Despite finishing the 2007–08 campaign in 10th place under the guidance of Tommy Taylor, United were still in administration by the 2nd Saturday of May in 2008. This meant they were relegated again to the Northern Premier League Premier Division for the 2008–09 season. Despite coming out of administration just before the start of the new season anyway, Boston United failed to have this decision overturned. Another result of this was that they would also have to enter the FA Cup in the 1st qualifying round, something which they had not done for many years. They reached the final of the Lincs Senior Shield but were swept aside by Stamford 4–1,and finished the league campaign in 16th position.

A much more favourable campaign the following season saw The Pilgrims finish 3rd in the league where they won the play-offs, beating Bradford Park Avenue in the final thanks to an Anthony Church extra time winner to earn promotion back to the Conference North.

Joint managers Rob Scott and Paul Hurst resigned from the club in 2011 and were appointed joint managers of Conference National side Grimsby Town. Club chairman David Newton revealed he was beginning legal proceedings against the pair and Grimsby Town, for breach of contract. The Pilgrims wasted no time appointing former Boston player Jason Lee and current player Lee Canoville as joint caretaker managers. With only 7 Conference North games remaining, the pair guided United to a 3rd-place finish in the league setting up a play-off tie against Guiseley. Boston lost the first leg 1–0 at Nethermoor Park but fought back in the return leg winning 3–2 at the Jakemans Stadium to take the match to extra-time and penalties. Boston went out losing 2–3.

After a decent start to the 2012–13 season, Boston started to drop off the promotion pace, with a 7-game winless run from November to mid-December not aiding their cause. More inconsistency followed, and Jason Lee was sacked. Graham Drury took over within the same week but left the club after less than 2 months. Dennis Greene took over soon afterwards, but after a good start couldn't help the club from finishing higher than a poor 16th place, just 5 points above the relegation zone.

The following season was a marked improvement in both league and cups. Whilst Boston fell at the 2nd hurdle (2–0) at Brackley, they made the last 32 of the FA Trophy with wins over Redditch and Southport, before a 2–0 loss at Tamworth. In the league, they held on to a top 5 spot for most of the season and never fell below 8th, but they couldn't keep up with late surges by Hednesford and Guiseley, ending 1 place and 6 points off the playoffs in 6th.

The following season Boston did make the play-offs however, securing a place with a 4–1 victory at Solihull Moors before a 0–0 draw at home to relegated Leamington was enough to secure third place. A 0–0 draw at Chorley's Victory Park set up a winner takes it all second leg at York St, and goals from Scott Garner and Kaine Felix put Boston 2–0 ahead. However, Chorley forced extra time with an overhead kick from Adam Roscoe late in injury time. Despite Roscoe's extra time red card, Boston failed to score a third and the game went to penalties, which United lost after seven spot kicks when Sam Ashton saved Rene Steer's penalty.

Boston started the 2015–16 season as play-off favourites once again, but pressure mounted on Greene due to poor results including losing to Gainsborough in the FA Cup and Solihull Moors in the FA Trophy (both in the first round Boston featured in). However, Boston found spells of form later in the season to ensure 5th place at the expense of Nuneaton- a 3-point deduction received by the Warwickshire side helping the United cause.

Boston faced North Ferriby United in the play-offs, and won the first leg 2–0 at home through Grant Roberts and Zak Mills' goals. The second leg at Church Farm saw that lead overturned by King, Denton and Brooksby as United again missed out. Somewhat of an exodus then occurred as Boston saw Spiess, Mills, Piergianni, Garner, Marrs, Felix and Southwell all depart, Southwell and Mills notably moving to league sides Wycombe and Grimsby respectively.

The following season started poorly, manager Greene leaving the club in late November to be replaced by former Mansfield Town manager Adam Murray. He led the side to safety but was himself gone by November the following year. With Boston occupying a relegation spot, Craig Elliott – leaving Shaw Lane to do so – took over and guided the Pilgrims to safety, United for a time threatening to break in to the play-offs following victories over title chasing Harrogate and Salford City.

Elliott's second full season in charge was to be the club's last at York Street (2019–20). The side won through four away ties in the FA Cup to reach a second round game away to Rochdale. A draw at Spotland secured York Street one last big cup tie – the League One side winning 2–1 in a televised replay with over 4000 in attendance. Newcastle United at home was their reward. The coronavirus pandemic cut short the season and Boston finished third on points-per-game, winning a behind closed doors semi-final against Gateshead 5–3 to secure a play-off final with Altrincham. The Robins scored the only goal of the game, the club's last match at York Street.

With the new Pilgrim Way stadium delayed due to the pandemic, the 2020–21 season, still behind closed doors, started with United playing home games at Gainsborough's Northolme. A covid outbreak in the squad meant only 3 home games were played at Trinity's home, as the Boston Community Stadium opened on 5 December 2020, against Chorley. The season was ended as the coronavirus situation worsened over the winter. 2021–22 finally saw United fans able to see a game at the new Pilgrim Way stadium, starting with a 5–0 friendly win over Lincoln City in July 2021.

Boston United Football Club is a professional soccer team based in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The team was founded in 1933 and has a rich history of success in non-league football. They currently play in the National League North, which is the sixth tier of English football.

The team's home ground is the Jakemans Stadium, which has a capacity of 6,643 spectators. The stadium is known for its excellent facilities and has hosted a number of high-profile matches over the years.

Boston United has a strong and dedicated fan base, who are known for their passionate support of the team. The team's colors are amber and black, and their crest features a stylized version of the Boston Stump, a famous local landmark.

Over the years, Boston United has enjoyed a number of successes, including winning the Northern Premier League title in 1978 and 2002, as well as the Conference North title in 2005. They have also reached the FA Cup third round on several occasions, and have a proud tradition of producing talented young players who have gone on to play at higher levels of the game.

Overall, Boston United is a well-respected and successful soccer team with a proud history and a bright future ahead of them.