Stuart Boardley Interview
Reaction from the boss on Tuesday's epic win and a look ahead to Saturdays BIG match.
In the troubling year of 2020, it is rare indeed that a moment of sheer euphoria has been felt that matches that experienced at 21.50pm on Tuesday. The pride I felt at the accomplishment of the team was immense and I’m not shy to admit that the tears were rolling down my cheeks!
Work commitments meant I was unable to leave the office in time to make the game in the far away land of…. Errr Surrey, so I had the task of keeping all us Seasiders at home in the loop of what was happening at Leatherhead form the comfort of my DFS sofa. Luckily the IPhone battery just held out enough for Chris to give me running commentary by text and snippets on video that I could cobble together to keep everyone at home updated. Tom Bradford was also on hand and I am sure everyone would agree that the pictures he produced were so exceptional that you almost felt you were there!
I spoke to Stuart Boardley the next day and those who followed the game at home, and congratulated the team afterwards may be surprised at what he had to say. “I have to admit to feeling a little gutted! Not at the result of course but for the fact this was our worst performance of the season. We lacked our usual endeavour and quality on the ball, to be honest we seemed to lack the balls to make a difference first half and I did have to lay into them at half time. I just felt we looked the lower level side, almost overawed by the occasion and that had surprised me. The only positives I felt at half time were the relief that we were not three or four goals behind and that we had defended manfully. That may seem harsh after such a terrific result but I have to be honest and say the better side on the night lost, Leatherhead were quick, dynamic, strong, physical and played at a high tempo and I was disappointed we could not match that.” Boardley went on to say, “Having said all that I also give huge credit to the lads, perhaps it’s the sign of a good side that you can grind out a result when you don’t play well so I will look on the bright side and say that last year we could have folded in that game and have been out of sight. We obviously now have the character to grind through and achieve a result like that, the players are victims of their own high standards and efforts this season in many ways, the expectations amongst the squad are at such a high level that they, as much as anyone will be disappointed with the level of performance. It has happened to us plenty of times in the past that we have been by far the better side and lost so perhaps we were due a result like that. The performance was not there but it was the players heart and determination that got us through, everyone pulled everyone else through, we defended like our lives depended on it and you could see the physical exhaustion at the end, summed up by that photo of Stuart Ainsley (below), they had given it everything and had nothing left in the tank”.
Boards also touched on the draw for the next round, another tough away game, this time at Northern Premier League High-flyers Basford United.
“We all know we cannot play like we did on Tuesday when facing a good side like Basford, we will have to impose ourselves on the game as we know those type of teams will be a real tough physical challenge, their record looks strong and we will have to be at our best on the day. Clearly we would have liked a home draw in front of our fans, in fact any fans! But we have to take what we are given and I genuinely believe we will go there with a decent chance of getting a result, expectations are still high and it doesn’t worry us playing in big games like this, it is where we want to be as a club and as players and management, and hopefully we can bring home a positive result. It was so good to see the injured players with us on the night also, I have been at clubs where for a game like this, midweek, long distance, cold, would always lead to phone calls on the day to call off with “working late” etc., but the difference in this group of players is a different class, they all came along to be part of the occasion and support each other and I am so proud of them all for that. The support on the night from the fans and club officials was also incredible and the outpouring of congratulations and messages on social media was quite humbling”.
The media team are making plans to enable in-depth coverage of Saturday’s game for those wanting to keep up-to-date at home and details will be released Friday evening of what we will have in place. I do get travel sick on coaches so will apologise now if I look a little green during any livestreams from the ground in Nottingham!
Stuart Daynes
Press Officer
