After a visit to Florence in the rain I headed south on the M1 to Dunkirk. Not the famous or perhaps infamous town in Northern France, 40 kilometers East of Calais, but the one in Nottinghamshire.

This Dunkirk is in South East of Nottingham and it is believed that the area’s name translated from Anglo-Saxon, is, ‘church ( kirk) on the hill (dun)’. There is also the riddle of why they are called the boatmen and have a man rowing a boat on their badge. I can only surmise that this is due to their nearness to the river Trent and nothing to do with bringing our troops home.

Fighting round the ring road in rush hour brings you to a small turning off a roundabout into Lenton Lane. This part of this busy road is more a country lane as it curves round next to the Trent to a sign pointing to Dunkirk FC. Like everywhere else I had to navigate the pot hole to get into the large nearly full car park that was pitch black. Drawn by sone lights in the distance I made my way to the club house and could see both teams warming up on some practice pitches. The ground was locked and everyone was heading like me to the large clubhouse with a bar for drinks and one for food. What struck me was how quiet it was, no music, no television and very little chatter. After coffee and chips I went to get into the ground but it was still locked and spectators waited outside before the floodlights were turned on at 19.33 and the gate was opened just after.

What a change in the weather as it was dry, no wind and at 8 degrees not cold although with no cloud cover that would change. The pitch was of grass and mainly flat with some undulating areas. There was a small seated stand behind one goal and on one side a smaller stand with seats and one for standing fans to shelter if it rained. Apart from that the ground was very open except for a row of poplar trees behind one end.

Dunkirk Fc have only been around since 1946 and played nearly fifty years in the Notts Alliance League until 1995 when they moved up to the Central Midlands League. They were founder members of the East Midland Counties Football League in 2008 and stayed there until they were transferred to the United Counties League Division 1 in 2021 when the EMCFL was disbanded in the F.A. reorganisation.

Bourne Town F.C. started in 1883 and are based in the South West corner of Lincolnshire. They played on and off in The Peterborough and District League until joining the United Counties League in 1947 which they left to return to the Peterborough and District in 1956. Only 5 years later they were off to the newly formed Midland League but by 1965 they were back for good in the United Counties.

Dunkirk F.C 0 Bourne Town F.C. 1

Tuesday 7th March 2024, 19.45 kick off. 5th v 1st, Boatmen v The Wakes

1 Lenton Lane, Nottingham, NG7 2SA

Dunkirk F.C. Red shirts, Black Shorts; Bourne Town F.C. Royal Blue shirts and shorts

Bourne were quick to impose their style of quick running wingers delivering high and low crosses into the box but were unable to get on the end of any. This was partly due to their forwards not being in the right place but also the strong defence and good goalkeeping of the home side. This pattern of play stayed the same for the whole half with Dunkirk having short bursts of pressure on Bourne’s goal.

Bourne continued the pressure at the start of the second half and were rewarded on 53 minutes when the ball was crossed from far out on the left wing hitting the cross bar, saved by the home keeper, eluding the defenders trying to clear the rebound, only for Henry Dunn to stroke the ball into the net.

The away team continued to create the most chances but failed to add to their tally and after a long delay due to a head injury to the home sides full back they eased up.

You felt that Dunkirk could get that equaliser and after 4 minutes of the ten minutes added time Dunkirk should have scored when one of their players managed to spoon a chance over the bar from two yards out.

Bourne maintained their impressive table topping run but Dunkirk were always in the game and my man of the match was the Dunkirk number 5 who played well and marshalled their defence admirably. A disappointing attendance of only 92 with a good few from Bourne.

While waiting for the ground to open I had to sample the chips. In the very quiet clubhouse my £1.50 chips were a good portion, hot, crispy (not too hard), tasty and not greasy. I enjoyed them so scored them a 65.