Bourne Town FC
Abbey Lawn
Abbey Road
Bourne
Lincolnshire
PE10 9EN
Ground: 80
Date: Saturday 20th April 2019
Bourne Town 0-4 Irchester United
United Counties League Division 1
Attendance: 67 (official)
Bourne Town FC - History
Bourne Town were founded in 1883 and first joined the Peterborough & District League in 1911. The club left the league in 1929, but returned after a season's absence and won Division 1 in the 1933/34 season. The club again left the league in 1935, but returned two years later and won the league in the 1939/40 season. After World War 2, the club finished as champions for two consecutive seasons before joining the United Counties League for the 1947/48 season.
After finishing a respectable 7th in their first season at that level, the club started to struggled and finished second-from-bottom in the next two seasons and then third-from-bottom the season afterwards. After improving and finishing 7th in the 1951/52 season, the club struggled again and finished bottom two seasons later, before finishing second-from-bottom the following two seasons.
After finishing second-from-bottom in the 1955/56 season, the club returned to the Peterborough & District League, but transferred to Division 1 South of the Central Alliance League two years later. The club won the Division 1 South title in the 1959/60 season, before moving up to the Midland League for the 1961/62 season. The club spent four seasons in this league and, after finishing second-from-bottom in the 1964/65 season, they dropped down to Division 1 of the United Counties League.
The club finished as runners-up in their first season at that level, before going on to win consecutive titles in the 1968/69 and 1969/70 seasons. The title was won again in the 1971/72 season, after which Division 1 was renamed the Premier Division. This saw a slight downturn in the club's fortunes for much of the next decade as they started to regularly finish in the bottom half, but the 1981/82 season saw the club finish 5th and was followed by consecutive 4th-place finishes.
A few more years of inconsistency followed after this - including the club finishing bottom in the 1987/88 and 1988/89 seasons - before the club won the title again in the 1990/91 season. After this, the club spent the next twenty years in the Premier Division, mostly finishing in the bottom half but occasionally breaking into the top half. However, in the 2009/10 season the club finished fifth-from-bottom and were relegated to Division 1 (for some reason). The club have remained here ever since, recording a highest finish of 5th in the 2015/16 season.
In the FA Cup, the club have progressed as far as the 3rd Qualifying Round on four occasions, most recently in the 1971/72 season when they beat Boston and Stamford before losing to King's Lynn. In the FA Trophy, the club progressed as far as the 1st Round in the 1972/73 season, beating Desborough Town, Histon and Wellingborough Town before losing to Bridgwater Town. As for the FA Vase, the club's best run saw them reach the 4th Round in the 1989/90 season: they beat Huntingdon United, Royston Town, Holbeach United and Eastwood Hanley before losing in a replay to Spalding United.
My Visit
Originally, I had been hoping to visit Stotfold yesterday, partially because they will be moving to a new ground later this year (November, I believe), but also because it looked likely that Biggleswade FC would be able to secure the title and promotion there (as they ended up doing). However, when I asked my mum about giving me a lift to a game, she mentioned that she was heading to Norfolk on Friday to visit my aunt and pick my sister up from University, so she didn't want to travel far.
Because of this, I rejigged my options slightly and added this in place of Lakenheath, with my mum eventually choosing this. Even though this wasn't what I intended, I was still fine with it, as Bourne was quite a local one that I'd been meaning to do for a while, not least because it looked like a great ground for this level from what I'd seen online.
On the day of the game, the weather was nice enough to not have to worry about a postponement, so I spent a relaxed morning getting ready before we headed out just after 1:40pm. We arrived in Bourne itself around 2:15pm, taking a few minutes after that to find the ground and then find somewhere to park. Eventually, I got into the ground at 2:25pm, paying £1 for admission (student rate) and disappointingly learning that there wasn't a programme available.
After talking to the friendly man at the gate for a few minutes, I headed around the ground to do my usual circuit of photos as I awaited kick-off. Once I was done, I moved to stand under cover in front of the team sheets and tea bar, which is where I stayed throughout the game. Just before half-time, I bought a drink, some crisps and some sweets from the tea bar for £3.50.
Looking at the league table and recent form of the two teams, this match was looking like it would be a late-season dead rubber, but with the high amount of goals both teams had scored and conceded up to this point I was anticipating a few goals regardless.
Here's my report on a match that, though one-sided, was very entertaining and was absolutely not the dead rubber that it looked likely to be:
Irchester started this match on the front foot, Josh Burge almost scoring twice in the opening two minutes but placing his volleyed shots wide. Bourne then had their first decent chance after 5 minutes, Zak Munton getting an awkward shot away on the half volley but missing the target. At this point, it was looking like we were in for a thrilling game, but this didn't materialise until the second half.
In fact, after this early flurry of chances, the game quietened down until Burge had another chance for Irchester in the 20th minute: Dan Spaughton used his strength well to shield the ball to Burge, who shot through a few defenders and just inches wide of the far post. There were a few more decent chances here and there throughout the half, but the only other clear-cut chance (and comfortably the closest of the lot) came for Bourne in the 40th minute: a cross from deep was headed goalwards by Jake Mason, but it bounced the wrong side of the post and wide. 0-0 at half-time.
While the first half had proven lacking in goals, the second half quickly provided one when Irchester took the lead after 48 minutes: a drilled cross eluded Ant Muphey in the Bourne goal, before a header across the face of goal allowed Ryan Lovell to head into the empty net. The away side doubled their lead six minutes later as Lovell found himself one-on-one with Muphey: his first shot was blocked but fell back to him, but he rounded the keeper on the second attempt to score. Irchester continued to dominate after this, missing two golden chances in the 65th and 66th minutes: first, Lovell was again through one-on-one and had his shot saved and deflected into his foot before going over; the second saw Lovell lay the ball off to James Ball, who simply had to tap in but somehow shot over the bar.
After this, Irchester had to be patient as they continued to push forward, but their third goal eventually came in the 78th minute: a through ball again set Lovell through past the defence and he cut inside, moving across the box and eventually shooting past the keeper and covering defenders to complete his hat-trick. Chance after chance came after this, as Irchester constantly pushed forward at pace, with the only thing keeping the scoreline down being some excellent saves and clearances from Muphey. Their fourth almost came in the 88th minute, an excellent David Bell free kick played into the box and headed over at close range. Irchester didn't have to wait long after this for their fourth, as an own goal finished the job: Lovell rounded the keeper and headed wide (due to a poor first touch), before attempting a cross across goal that a Bourne defender headed in to make it 0-4.
Overall, this game was much more entertaining than I expected it to be, and certainly wasn't the dead rubber the table made it seem. Both teams put full effort in for the 90 minutes (despite the heat) and played in a good spirit, with very few fouls and other stoppages (other than a drink break each half). On the whole, though, Irchester were dominant in both physicality and intensity, which seems to be because Bourne were playing quite a young side; to their credit, they never gave up, but they never truly looked like scoring to get back into the game after falling behind.
Overall, this was a fine day out at a friendly club, and I'm glad that I ended up here for what was somehow my only neutral groundhop of the season when I've been at home (all my neutral ones have been while I was either on holiday or at University, and when I've been home all of my groundhops prior to this had been Yaxley away matches).
I got picked up again after the game, and after an easy drive we were back home again at around 5:25pm, allowing me to start work on my match report and sort out my photos much earlier than I normally would.
Up next is a visit to Corby tomorrow with my dad on the Yaxley supporters' coach, after which I will finish the season with a visit to Kintbury Rangers on the 4th of May, for what is looking likely to be a title decided against Wroughton.
The Ground
Abbey Lawn is an excellent ground at Step 6, and one that would most certainly not look out of place a couple of levels higher. The only cover at the ground is on the near side, but it is all very impressive. First is the imposing wooden main stand, which contains seating for around 200 people. Next to this is an area of covered standing, which contains the tea bar and a single step of terracing; overall, this probably provides cover for up to 300 people.
Other than this, the rest of the ground is open hard standing and there is little room for expansion due to the close proximity of hedges and fences on all sides. The ground now has an overall capacity of 2,000, but the record attendance was 3,000 for an FA Trophy against Chelmsford City in 1970.
Photos
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