BRAVE BOSTON HAVE STRUCK IT RICH
BOSTON’S Jordan Richards reckons his latest tale of the unexpected was his best yet – and he wants to stick around for another chapter.
The midfielder played a key part as the Pilgrims secured a berth in NonLeague’s top flight for the first time since winning the Conference in 2002 with a 2-1 National League North promotion final victory at his former club Brackley Town last Saturday.
A summer move from the Saints saw Richards reunite with boss Ian Culverhouse, the man he won back-to-back promotions to the National League under at King’s Lynn Town.
The second of those came as National North champions on points-per-game in the first season disrupted by Covid with the nature of Boston’s triumph and the boisterous celebrations afterwards making this one that little more memorable.
“This is number one for me,” he told The NLP. “I got promoted with King’s Lynn which I loved as well but you have those little excuses, like it being the Covid season. This has been amazing, to have that party with the fans and celebrate it here today.
“We were away three times in the play-offs too, to go to the three grounds we did and come away with wins was unbelievable.
“I would say we were underdogs in all three games and we thrived on that, there was no pressure and that showed. You can play with freedom.”
Some of his natural game had to be stifled on the day, though, with Culverhouse tweaking Boston’s tactics to get the better of a Brackley side that had held the upper hand in both league matches.
Whirlwind
“Everyone was betting against us coming into this, we won on penalties both times before the final. We had to dig deep and fully deserved to win,” added Richards.
“We knew they had a strong team, they beat us both times in the league so we thought we would match them up, try to go for it and not sit in too much.
“We didn’t want to concede the first goal but credit to the lads, we dug deep to turn around the result.
“I felt like I had to be everywhere. They have a good midfield, I knew I wouldn’t have so much of the ball but as long as I did my defensive side well, I also knew we had enough at the top of our team to cause them problems.
“We had worked on that, we wanted to work the channels because we knew we had the pace to get down the sides.”
It has been a whirlwind for Culverhouse since walking through Boston’s door in September 2022.
He took over a side that had lost the promotion final at York months before but sat bottom of the pile without a win.
Recruitment
They moved clear of danger with around a month to spare amid continual transition, moving to a hybrid training model and bringing in 16 new players over the summer to make this season’s sharp turnaround all the more remarkable – and the pace of change shows no signs of slowing.
“There will be a lot of hard work in the summer, firstly to tie some of these lads down,” said Culverhouse.
“Most of them are out of contract, I think there are only two or three on deals for next season so the recruitment will be a big task for us again.”
You’d have to assume Richards’s outlook would be music to his ears.
“I would love to stay,” the midfielder confirmed.
“We haven’t had those talks yet, we wanted to see the season out without any distractions first but I would love to be here.
“Boston United can go as high as they want to as long as the work goes in over the summer, which I am sure it will.”