Happy 60th birthday to the Mortgages For You Stadium!
It was on 21 August 1965 that the first competitive match was played at the Tattershall Road ground.
Boston FC, the forerunners of the club we know today as Boston Town, ran out 2-0 winners against Cresswell Colliery in the Central Alliance.
The goals were scored by Mel Smith and Bob Edwards in front of a crowd of 800.
Long-time supporter Pat Rivett has vivid memories of the new stadium.
“I can remember going to that game and recalling how big the ground was,” he said.
“The pitch was the other way round and incorporated a running track for the horse trotting racing. I don’t know how many races took place but it just didn’t take off. All for the better In my opinion, as it made the pitch so far away from the dressing rooms.
“The stand behind the goal is actually half the size it was, as it ran along the length of the pitch. I think the half they took away was used to help make the seated stand we have today.”
It was all a far cry from the club’s first season in 1964-65 when Boston FC played at Mayflower ground.
“The changing rooms and showers were fine as they were part of the sports set-up but it was an open field really. There was a rope around the open side on match days but no gate for match fees. Basically if you didn’t want a programme no one could stop you watching the game for free.”
The new club had formed in a hurry in the summer of 1964 and spent much of their first season developing the ground in Tattershall Road so it would be ready for the start of 1965-66.
“The original dressing rooms were there from day one and so was the clubhouse. I may be wrong but I definitely remember everything being in place that season,” recalled Pat.
“And it had the first and probably the only cockle shell based car park in the country that year!”
Pat actually missed a fair bit of the beginning of that season as he was in hospital from the end of September to mid-November having the last of several operations on his leg because of polio.
“Seems crazy that I was playing in the youth teams a year later,” he said.
That 2-0 victory against Cresswell Colliery signalled the start of a phenomenal season, which saw Boston FC undefeated in the whole of their league campaign, winning 36 matches and drawing the other four.
“That was some team that year.,” said Pat.
“By the time they sold Harry Godbold to Lincoln City in March they had all but won the league by then. I think Lincoln paid FC something like £1,100 for the transfer, which wasn’t bad for non-league in those days.
“It was a pure pleasure watching that first season down Tattershall Road. Forget about Arsenal – FC were the original invincibles.”
Boston Town FC 