Mens Football Program 29th July vs Boston Town

FOOTBALL

UNITED COUNTIES LEAGUE

SAT 29 JULY 2023

KO 15:00

ESTABLISHED 1919

WHERE HISTORY BEGINS

WELCOME

JAMIE CLAPHAM

MEN’S HEAD COACH

Good afternoon and welcome to the Loughborough University Stadium for today’s opening league game of the season. I would like to welcome the management team, players, officials and supporters from Boston Town.

At Loughborough, we are very much looking forward to the upcoming season and we begin with a tough opening week with three games in seven days with an FA Cup Tie against Grantham to look forward to next weekend.

It has been an interesting pre-season with plenty of challenges but we have taken them all in our stride and now look forward to the season with lots of competition for places.

As always, thank you for your continued support and I hope you enjoy the game!

TODAYS TEAMS

LOUGHBOROUGH STUDENTS FC V

JAKE ALLEY (GK)

TOBY LARSEN (GK)

RICHARD ALLEN

HALIM BANGURA

JONTY BOUCH

THOMAS BUTLER

ANTHONY CHENG

JAMES COOK

MAX CRANE

ZOLANI QUINTON DLODLO

DYLAN EDWARDS

PIERS FAULTLEY

JOE FOUNTAIN

RYAN HAYES

NOAH INGHAM-WRIGHT

CONNOR KEENE

DREW LOWE

ETHAN O’TOOLE

OLIVER PARSONS

THEO SACKEY-MENSAH

EMILIO STAVROU

JAMES THEW

JOSH WICKS

DOMINIC FORBES

MIKEY DIONISIOU

BOSTON TOWN FC

TRAVIS PORTAS

DAN WORTHINGTON

LUKE WILSON

RICHARD FORD

JORDAN TATE

LEE BEESON

LAYTON MADDISON

GEORGE HOBBINS

FRASER BAYLISS

LIAM ADAMS

JORDAN NUTTELL

MARSHALL YOUNG

HARRY LIMB

JASON FIELD

FLYNN SLATER

LORI BORBELY

TODAYS OPPOSITION BOSTON TOWN FC

Boston Football Club formed after a public meeting was held in the summer of 1964 following a row over money matters which led to Boston United opting out of senior non-league football.

FC first played in the Lincs League and Central Alliance League, winning both at a canter under Paul Todd. New manager Bill Curry brought them the Midland League title in 1974-75 before he was replaced by Bob Don-Duncan.

Boston FC reached the 1st Round Proper of the FA Cup in November 1976, playing Barnsley away in front of a 6,000 plus crowd. The end of that season brought more silverware, with FC triumphing 2-1 on aggregate against Alfreton in the Midland League Cup Final.

The 1978-79 season saw FC become champions again and they also won the Lincs Senior A Cup three times in a row. The 1979-80 season saw a thrilling FA Trophy run in which they beat holders Stafford Rangers before losing to Mossley in a replay. The Midland League title was won for a third time in 1980-81 by a commanding 13 points over second-placed Alfreton.

When the Midland League was disbanded, FC joined the Northern Counties East League, which was dominated by new names like Shepshed Charterhouse. A string of bosses followed, including Percy Freeman, Trevor Thompson, Steve Rogers, Martyn Boyers and Jim Kabia. Under Bill Brindley, FC enjoyed another title triumph, becoming champions of the Central Midlands League in 1986-87.

The club joined the United Counties League in 1990-91 and were renamed Boston Town soon afterwards. With Don-Duncan back at the helm, they won the United Counties League for the first time in 1994-95. A year earlier The Poachers had come close to making an appearance at Wembley, losing narrowly in the FA Vase semi-final to Taunton.

The 2000-01 season ended with another enthralling climax. This time, Town pipped Cogenhoe on the last day of the season, with Ian Shooter grabbing the allimportant goal in stoppage time.

In 2007-08, Gary Bull became the club’s all-time leading goalscorer – he eventually hung up his boots

with 201 goals to his credit, having also smashed the club record for most goals in a season with a remarkable 57 in 2006-07.

The Poachers secured further silverware in 2008-09 when they won the Lincs Senior Trophy for the first time in 19 years, beating Winterton 2-0 in the final held at Lincoln City’s Sincil Bank stadium.

Following a disappointing 2009-10 season, Bob DonDuncan departed again – and since then the club have appointed a string of managers to try to bring back success on the field.

They’ve included Martyn Lakin, the duo of Ian Dunn and Matt Hocking, Nathan Collins in two spells, Dan Barrett, Mark Angel, Gary Frost and Gary Edgley.

In 2017, Frost led the Poachers to their best FA Cup run for four decades, beating three sides from higher leagues.

Former head coach Edgley took over as manager in August 2018 and steered his side to another impressive FA Cup run the following year. The Poachers also reached the final of the 2019-20 Lincs Senior Trophy but the game was never played because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In November 2021, the club announced a new sponsorship deal that saw their ground named the Mortgages For You Stadium.

The hugely popular and experienced Martyn Bunce took over as manager when Edgley stepped down at the end of 2021-22 for personal reasons. In April 2023, he led Boston Town to win the Lincs Senior Trophy, their first trophy for 14 years.

UNITED

LOUGHBOROUGH STUDENTS FC A BRIEF HISTORY

1919-20

Earliest records of Loughborough Men’s football date-back to 1919-20 side, under the name of Loughborough Technical Institute and guidance of Principal Herbert Schofield.

In 1920 it became a college of Technology, with the football side winning its first silverware on record in the Northern Junior Cup in 1922.

1930-1970

Loughborough Men won their first University Championship in the 1938/39 season and the Leicestershire Senior League in 1940, after the war they returned to winning ways in the University competition (UAU) from 1947 – 1953, 1955, 1957 and 19591963, 1965, 1966 and 1969. In 1966 Loughborough became a University and also competed in the Leicestershire Senior League Division Two until 1972.

The 1970s was an extremely important decade for the Club. Three more University titles followed and former student and then lecturer, Mike Holliday, took up the reigns of Head Coach, a role he would continue into the mid-90s. Early signs of Mike’s rein included an away victory over a Manchester United XI.

THE 35 YEAR WAIT

The side waited 35 years for a return to non-league football, entering the Midland Combination for the first time in 2007-08. After silverware in their first season in the shape of the Midlands League Cup, in 2009 Loughborough won promotion as champions to the Midland Football Alliance Loughborough began to establish themselves in the MFA finishing 13th in 2009/10 and 4th in 2019/11. Head Coach Tom Curtis left to take over as National Team Coach of Antigua & Barbuda towards the end of that season.

2011/12 Stuart McLaren’s first term ended with a 5th place finish in the Midland Football Alliance and victory in the League Cup, the club’s highest ever honour so far. The League Cup was retained in 2012/13 as the side equalled their highest ever league finishing position in the MFA of 4th.

In May 2012 the Loughborough University Stadium was opened with a showcase game against a Spurs Academy team. Many Loughborough Football graduates and staff also started to carve extremely successful Coaching roles in the Professional Game – a trend that continues to this day.

Former players include Bob Wilson (former Scotland & Arsenal), Bradley Pritchard (Former Charlton & Leyton Orient), Robbie Simpson (Cheltenham City former Coventry City, Exeter City, MK Dons), Leon McSweeney (Former Northampton Town & Leyton Orient), George Williams (Mk Dons & Former Barnsley).

Other former players and staff are littered throughout the Premiership and EFL, in a coaching and support staff capacity including Kieran McKenna & Eric Ramsay (Manchester United), Sam Erith (England & Manchester City), Nathan Gardiner (formerly Spurs, Fulham), Matthew Prestridge (formerly Sheffield United), Matt Reeves (Leicester City).

In 2014 Loughborough University joined the Midland Football League in its inaugural year.

The 2016/17 saw the Scholars have one of their most positive starts to the MFL season in a number of years. However, a disappointing run in from December saw the 16/17 season fall away with the club finishing in 18th out of 22.

The 17/18 season also saw the appointment of Richard Allen as Director of Football, in January 2018. Richard joined from the FA where he was head of Talent ID. He has extensive knowledge of academy football with previous roles as Head of Academy at QPR and Head of Recruitment at Tottenham.

Progressing onto the 2018/19 season Alex Ackerley was appointed Head Coach continuing to work alongside Jamie Hawthorne, who has since moved in 2019/20 to work as an Academy Coach at Southampton FC.

2018/19 season ended in a County Cup Final appearance against Coalville Town, with the Ravens, who play at Step 3, winning the game 4 – 1 at Holmes Park.

Scholars celebrate their Centenary as well as a new challenge having been moved laterally during the off season into the Uhlsport United Counties Football League. The scholars were sitting in 4th place in mid March when the 19/20 season was deemed null and void due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Yet again the 2020/21 season was affected by the Covid19 virus and Alex Ackerley and his student coaches, Joel Bonner, Callum Crockard and Ben Day saw the season curtailed in January 2021, whilst sitting at the top of the league. Joel moved to Liverpool’s academy during December 2020 to work with the U16s and Ben to Burton Albion shortly after at the turn of the year. Callum will start 2021/22 on his course placement at Southampton, where he will be working in their academy.

PROGRESSING

The 2021/22 season sees the club return to using the Loughborough Students name across all the teams, both in the leagues and BUCS competitions, the U21s will continue in MFL U21s East. This is a new chapter for the Scholars, with experienced, former

professional player and pro-licence coach, Jamie Clapham arriving in the preseason as the new University Men’s Head Coach, together with the appointment of a new University Football Programme Manager, Harriet Simes, joining from Birmingham City Women, following the departure of Mat Stock to Wolverhampton Wanderers Academy and Alex Ackerley to Sunderland Academy. As always with Loughborough Students FC, you will see some new faces, not necessarily new students, but players who have worked their way through the programme from U21s to earn their place in the performance squad. Everyone is looking forward to the new season, continuing to build on the foundations that Mat and Alex have put in place.

The 21/22 season was a very successful season for Loughborough Students FC with the first team finishing 4th in the United Counties League as well as a record-breaking cup run in the Buildbase FA Vase, reaching the semi-final, before exiting the competition away from home after defeat to Littlehampton Town FC away from home.

The 22/23 season resulted in Loughborough Student’s FC’s highest ever finish with a 3rd-placed finish in the United Counties League narrowly missing out on the playoffs. The team exited the FA Cup in the First Qualifying Round with a narrow defeat to Gainsborough Trinity and in the FA Vase, the team progressed to the Second Round losing to Stourport Swifts. Overall the season was a successful one with great strides made to improve the team resulting in the team’s best-ever finish at Step 5.

LOOKING FORWARD

Now we are all looking forward to the upcoming season and building on last season’s success, with ambitions of a finish in the playoff places and possible promotion. Competing on all fronts possible is something prioritised here at Loughborough so we look forward to a potential cup run and continued league success.

We have also added our Development Team to the Leicestershire Senior League for this year. We are looking forward to seeing their progress from Step 9 up the non-league pyramid which will keep competition for places fierce throughout the squad.

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