Boston United manager Ian Culverhouse believes his side got out of jail after snatching a 2-2 draw against Gainsborough Trinity in the FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round.
It’s been a tough return to the National League for the Pilgrims having earned promotion from the National League North last season. They entered the tie against their Lincolnshire rivals on a winless run of six determined to put their run of bad form behind them.
In front of just under 2,000 supporters at the Northolme, Boston started the stronger of the two as they looked to make light work of a team two divisions below them. They took the lead through Jacob Hazel in the 20th minute when the striker took advantage of some miscommunication between the home side’s defence and goalkeeper, slotting home from close range.
It was a goal which sparked Gainsborough into life. Eight minutes later, the scores were level. This time it was Trinity who pounced on a loose ball inside the area, with Jordan Helliwell firing into the roof of the net from inside the area.
Culverhouse’s team looked shook up and the half time break failed to swing the pendulum. Just after the hour mark, the hosts got their reward in stunning fashion when Ashley Jackson fired home from outside of the box.
From there, the result looked a formality. Boston never looked like scoring and when four minutes of added time was announced, it seemed as if the Northern Premier League outfit would secure a spot in the FA Cup first round. However, the game changed in dramatic circumstances when substitute Aaron Braithwaite was shown a straight red card in the 93rd minute. The resulting free kick was whipped into the box and eventually bundled home by Pemi Aderoju to earn his side a replay on Tuesday night.
Following the game, manager Culverhouse claimed his side were lucky to still be in the hat for Monday’s first round draw. Speaking to official club media, he said:
“I don’t think we deserve it. We’re a team that’s really in a bad spot at the moment and you can see that with the way we’re playing. Not enough confidence.
“I thought when we did score that we would kick on, but we never. We went back into our shell. The goal took a little bit of stuffing out of us that we conceded and then we’ve become very, very safe and passive with our passing.
“That’s not like us. We need to find something on Tuesday because I thought they were better than us today. They got to a lot of second balls quickly, which is not like us because we’re usually full of it. I just see some young boys that are not there at the moment.
“We’ve got to take advantage of this now because we were down and out. We really were. That’s me being honest with you because we just weren’t good enough. We didn’t work the keeper, we didn’t put enough balls in the box, we got into crossing positions and turned away from it.
“Like I said, we just became passive in our passing. We’ve got another opportunity, by hook or by crook. We just need a shot of confidence from somewhere and a good result at home will probably give us that.”
Ultimately, the red card proved to be the turning point. It was a decision which sparked fury from the home support, but Culverhouse believes the official got it right:
“Yeah, it was just high. He’s cut a cut on his head. He’s just getting treatment now, that’s how high it was. It was a free kick and we put it in there and get the rewards from it, but it’s not good enough today.”
Writer’s View
Boston can count themselves lucky to be in the hat for Monday’s FA Cup first round draw. They were second best throughout the match and Gainsborough have every right to feel hard done by. The casual spectator would never have guessed there were two divisions between the two teams and even if they had, they would have said the hosts were the higher ranked team.
Culverhouse was very honest in his assessment and pulled no punches. Despite that, he is arguably wrong about the red card decision. Braithwaite had eyes only for the ball and although he definitely connected with Jai Rowe’s head, the Boston man had dipped low to connect with the ball. It was such a costly decision and one that has swung the tie in the Pilgrims’ favour.
Head of Writing
