MY YORK STREET: Micky, Cookie, Bazza, Ellie and - above all - family makes Boston United special for Adam Upsall

My first game: Well this is the thing. I’m not sure! I was taken to what I think was a schoolboy international game at some point in the mid to late 80s. What I do know is that my grandad had been going since the late 40s, he used to tell tales of matches like the ‘possibles against probables’ in pre-season and how Harry Sharp was better than anything I’d ever see. I recently found a Sportsmans Club fundraising card in my nan’s name which was from sometime in the 50s. So put it this way, it’s in the blood.

My favourite game: Before this season I’d confidently say Grantham to seal the Dr Martens in 2000. A big crowd, huge expectations, went behind, came roaring back. It felt like joy and relief. We were winners again and I can remember being so excited about what was to come as promotion was such a buzz. Although I did not anticipate promotion again so soon! But overall it’s the easiest question anyone could ask. With the sun shining, all the family there, 5-0 win, it was the proudest I’ve ever been in my life. Dan, my eldest son, was mascot for the Alty game last August. The original plan was to wait till the last game of the season, thank god I changed my mind. I can’t put into words how happy we all were, it was a perfect day and I’m so very grateful for all those who make days like that so memorable to anyone who does it. Only one person would have been happier than me and I’m sure he was looking down. And complaining about the ref.

My least favourite game: Again I don’t have to go far back. It was the one with THAT overhead kick. The group of players we had that season were magnificent. They seemed to have a real bond and togetherness. I’ve recently spoken to Grant Roberts about it and for him, just as us fans, even mentioning that day is painful. I’ve never watched it back but I can play it back in my head with such clarity it still hurts now.

My strangest game: There have been some mad scorelines witnessed over the years. Flurries of red cards, floodlight failures, a frozen pitch mid-game and that time a kamikaze seagull flew into the main stand. I do think though for strange you would be hard pushed to beat that Nuneaton one. Abandoned on 44 minutes. All of us stood there assuming it was half time and then this odd wave of chatter coming from the York Street end that no, it was in fact, not half time but sort of full time.

My happiest memory: There really have been loads. I know its easy and a bit more fashionable to be laid back about it. But I love our home. I’ve loved the times when all four sides get chanting and clapping as one (I bet you are remembering it now). I’ve loved the comebacks, the last minute winners, the early leads, the sharp lines fired down from the back of the terrace that have us in stitches. The players we loved to hate and the players we just loved. Right up there was the time in 2008 when we all stood looking at three blokes, two in suits, one with a microphone, tell us that some admin had been sorted, apparently it was important. Then the biggest cheer I think I’ve ever heard (bigger than Rochdale) thundered out. Thank you so much David and Neil. Being exiled for almost all of my adult life I’ve a lot of happy memories of driving back up to Yorkshire just beaming with a silly grin and a thrill to do it all again at the next one. I sometimes think that living away from Boston actually makes me more passionate and more proud than if I’d have lived in the town still. I’m meaning that for myself, not that by default anyone not living with a PE postcode is somehow more of a supporter. But I get more of a chance to surprise people at work or just out and about when they ask who I support. More of a chance to show off that pride. Anyway back to the point, happiest memory. Last game of the season in 2018, not a memorable one, a dull nothing to play for 1-0 (with a pen) win over Telford. But, it was the first time I got to take both my boys to the game. Seeing them experience it and start them off on their own football supporting journey was truly a happy moment - thank god we won.

My worst memory: A little over 13 years ago. Sat up in the York Street end listening to Barrie Peirpoint and realising that we really were about to become newsworthy again for the worst possible reason. I honestly didn’t think we would survive. I made sure I raced back on that day, I’d been in France on holiday and only landed hours earlier, I had to be in the ground as I said to my wife there could be a real chance this is the last time I’ll be in there. If league football was the heady buzz of a great night out, that hangover hit bloody hard and really did make me feel sick.

My favourite goal: Cold Wednesday night, nothing much game in October 2000, I’d darted back from working down south to make it. I was standing there in my smart shoes and suit, freezing. Then late sub Mark Rawle, on for Lennie Curtis in one of those throw the kitchen sink changes, and bang, in the top corner from 20 yards. I’m not sure why that one has always been there in my mind ahead of so many other great goals, some in much bigger games. But it does, I think it's the way it was something so magnificent out of a moment so mundane. Football can do that, football is brilliant.

My favourite player: Micky Nuttell was a colossus number nine with immaculate hair and elbows sharper than one of those shopping channel knives that cut through shoes. He was a hero. Bazza, a genuinely first class human being and footballer that you can’t fail to hold in high regard due to his commitment, effort and fearless attitude. He continues to be someone I admire. Chris Cook, a proper childhood idol. You ask my boys now who is the all time top scorer for Boston and they know. If they didn’t they would lose pocket money. Chris is someone who I think embodies the spirit of our football club more than anyone has or possibly ever could. He is, to me, the greatest. But the question is favorite, not my hero, who I admire or think is the greatest. My favorite player I first remember watching away at Scarborough, I might have seen him before then but he didn’t make the impression he did on that day. He played against us and I have a very clear memory of wishing he was in our colours. Within a few months he was. Paul Ellender was a constant through some of the most eventful years of our club. He was a leader, a talisman, a match winner and a destroyer. Not flash, but first name on the team sheet. If I was doing an all time side he would be first on mine (sorry Bazza, a very close second, with Cookie third).

My favourite manager: The current one is right up there, if he gets us over the line this season, or in the future I think we will be looking back at that and this season's FA Cup run very fondly indeed. Neil Thompson did a wonderful job in exceptionally difficult circumstances, similarly Tommy Talyor in that first season after the relegation/demotion double. Favorite though, Hurst and Scott, they seemed to bring a winning mentality, a fierce commitment to high standards and translate that into a promotion winning side. Arguably if they had not been enticed away when they were it would have been two promotions.

Best opposition player: A home defeat to Cambridge in the league and David Kitson netted a brace. He looked like he should have been playing higher up, the next season he was in the Championship, then the following in the Premier League. Outside of him I like to remember the times we had players arrive with an opposition, play a blinder, then get announced for us a short time after. Stuart Balmer, Peter Duffield, Jermaine Easter, Ian Ross plus many others well before my time stood on Spayne Road. Much better than the other way around, players looking terrible for us and then returning as world beaters. Yeah, I’m thinking of you Adam Marriott.

Best away side: Aside from the obvious cup games against higher division sides I think its pretty neat to look back at those first couple of football league seasons. We finished five points clear of Swansea, five behind Hull who went on to Premier League status within a few years. I still find it amazing we held out as long as we did at that level. If I was to pick one that stood out I’d go for Carlise putting five past us the year they won League Two, we were terrible but they were on a mission in the second half scoring four. Michael Bridges hat-trick and two from a future Pilgrim Karl Hawley.

I'll miss York Street because: It’s home. This last season, with its weird and abrupt halt, has made it harder in a lot of ways to say goodbye. It feels like its been taken away rather than we left it. And with it not being anyone's fault its been an odd sense of grief. I don’t mind admitting I've shed tears a couple of times, last summer when it dawned on me as I was telling friends that this was going to be the last season. That time caught me out, I think its because the place feels a bit like a person, certainly a personality, in my life. Then again I was choked up on the day that would have been the send off against Hereford. I guess until that day finally arrived there was a classic football supporters irrational, emotional and entirely illogical hope that we would get one last match. We didn’t. We won’t. I’ll never get to stand on the second step, just short of the halfway line on the Spayne Road terrace ever again. But when I did, it was the happiest I’ve ever been.

Previous My York Street contributions: Andy Butler, Roger Smith, Christian James, Ken Fox, Jonathan Van Tam, Richard O. Smith, Pete Brooksbank, Josh Butler.If you'd like to take part in My York Street, email [email protected]